HTC Magic selling twice as fast as G1
updated 02:45 pm EDT, Fri June 19, 2009
HTC 1m Magics by August
HTC chief Peter Chou told the Taiwan-area commercial paper Commercial Times today that his company expects to sell the millionth Magic by August. Having taken roughly six months to sell the millionth G1, Chou's firm now says it will only take the three months since the Magic's launch in May to reach a similar amount for the second Android phone. It's not clear how many Android phones HTC has sold in total.
The Magic's success is helped by much wider carrier distribution that has included Vodafone, other primarily European carriers like TIM, and Canadian provider Rogers. The G1 for its first million was limited almost exclusively to T-Mobile in the US and the UK, neither of which has a large reach compared to rivals.
Most consider the Magic one of the closest competitors to the iPhone as it drops the hardware keyboard but has a very similar capacitive touchscreen, 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi and a 3.2-megapixel camera. Its sales rate has nonetheless been slower as Apple itself shipped 3.8 million iPhone 3G units last quarter in spite of a difficult economy.
T-Mobile in the US has confirmed it will launch its next Android phone this coming week and is likely to make it an adapted version of the Magic, known as the myTouch 3G, which would have a better 5-megapixel camera. [via Unwired View]
