Cellphone maker HTC today told the Taiwan-area newspaper Commercial Times that the company would be scaling back its expectations for 2009. Despite having predicted a spike of 20 percent for revenue from smartphone sales, company chief Peter Chou now says HTC has had to lower its predictions in light of the current economy. He declines to provide new specific figures but believes that the company will still achieve "double-digit" improvement over 2008.

Chou points to his firm's appearance at CES as support for some degree of optimism, noting that the reception of its lineup was the best it has ever seen at one of the American events.

HTC has been one of the most aggressive Windows Mobile device makers and released several new models towards the end of 2008, including the Touch HD and multiple other touchscreen handsets. The company also builds T-Mobile's Android-based G1 phone and is believed to have shipped 1 million G1s just during the holidays. A second Android model is expected in April.

HTC's individual sales have nonetheless been eclipsed in recent months by immediate competitors, including Apple's iPhone 3G.