According to Digitimes, HTC CEO Peter Chou believes that the company will ship one million T-Mobile G1 phones by end of 2008. HTC has increased the G1 sales forecast by 66 percent from 600,000 units to one million by end of 2008. HTC also raised their sales forecast for Touch Diamond handset, which they launched in May of 2008. The company now estimates an increase of 50 percent in sales from two million units to three million units.
Chou used the occasion to discredit the rumors of decreased handset orders and staff layoffs. He claimed that the HTC handset business has yet not been affected by global economic rescission. Chou also revealed HTC’s plans for expansion by acquiring a handset design company in US.
The one million G1 sales forecast in first 70-80 days clearly shows that the Google Android based handset had a very good start. But it also proves the initial report by Motley Fool that there were more the 1.5 million pre-orders for the new handset wrong. In our view the G1 is the second best smartphone, software-wise, after iPhone. Design-wise it looks like it was made in 2005 and not 2008.