HTC, the world's No 5 smartphone maker, said on Monday it would triple its mainland outlets to 2,000 by end of this year from 650 now.

HTC CFO Winton Yung made the comment in a briefing hosted by the Taiwan stock exchange.

The company, one of the largest manufacturers of Google's Android-based devices, is embroiled in an acrimonious patent war with Apple , and is also seeing its rapid growth slow in an increasingly competitive market.

HTC said last month it expects revenue and shipment growth in the third quarter to slow for the first time in four quarters.

HTC's shares ended 3.38 percent higher on Monday in a broader market up 2.39 ahead of HTC's comments.