HTC's chief executive Peter Chou said that he was "happy" with the settlement the company reached with Apple last week to resolve all patent litigation between the two smarpthone manufacturers, but called estimates floating around as "outrageous".

HTC and Apple announced a global patent settlement and a 10-year licensing agreement after a two-year patent war in which Apple accused HTC of infringing its iPhone devices.

The companies did not disclose details of the settlement or the licensing agreement, leaving media reports to speculate that HTC is paying between $6 and $8 for every device it manufactures.

"I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I'm not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending," Chou told reporters.

Apple has been extremely litigious in defending the intellectual property surrounding its iPhone and iPad devices, as rival manufacturers start making inroads on its once dominant market position.

Manufacturers using Google's Android operating system have been particular targets, with the company still having pending litigation against Samsung and Motorola in courts around the world.

In August, Apple won a $1.05bn judgment against Samsung after a jury in California ruled that the South Korean company's Galaxy 10.1 tablet and Galaxy smartphones infringed the US company's design patents.

However, Samsung, which won a similar case in the UK recently, promised it would not capitulate to Apple like HTC did.

The company's chief executive Shin Jong-Kyun said following the announcement of the HTC-Apple deal that it "does not intend to negotiate at all".

Two years ago HTC was the biggest smartphone maker in the world producing Android handsets but it has struggled to keep pace with competition, particularly from market leader Samsung.

In October it posted its lowest quarterly profit since 2006 - $133m in total, down 79% from the previous year.

The Apple licensing agreement comes after the company was forced to take a similar license from Microsoft, which had also accused the Taiwanese firm of infringing its patents. The company expects to release two new smarpthones based on the Windows Phone 8 operating system soon.