Mobile phone manufacturer HTC plans to launch an NFC-enabled smartphone in the third quarter of 2011, according to Bright Side of News.

At a recent press event an HTC sales manager who wanted to remain unnamed said the phone would be positioned slightly above the recently announced HTC Sensation.

The news comes after NFC World reported last December that HTC chief executive Peter Chou had revealed the world’s fourth largest handset manufacturer has plans to add NFC functionality to its mobile phones.

In a video interview Chou was asked: “Is HTC keen to support mobile payments such as NFC in its devices?”

“Yes,” Chou replied. “Mobile payments — wirelessly and securely from device like smartphone — would be definitely the trend of the future and we’ll be supporting that.”

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