The speculation around the Web has been that Apple sued HTC to get at Google. By suing its biggest licensee, Apple hopes to hurt Google’s operating system business — at least that’s what people think.

Apple has good reasons to fear Android. In the three months from December to February, Android’s US smartphone subscriber share shot up from 2.8 perent to 7.1 percent. Worldwide, in 2009, Android smartphone market share — based on sales — rose from 0.5 percent to 3.9 percent, according to Gartner (The first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, shipped in late 2008). Last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted that 60,000 Android handsets are shipping by the day.

Joe Wilcox gives eight reasons why Apple chose to sue HTC.

Apple’s HTC patent lawsuit is a bluff [Betanews]