HTC may ship 24 million phones this year
updated 08:25 am EDT, Wed July 7, 2010
HTC could boost sales by 70 percent
HTC is expecting a huge spike in phone shipments that could make it a much tougher competitor in the second half of the year, part suppliers claimed on Wednesday. Estimates have it shipping 60 to 70 percent more phones than it did in the first half of 2010, and as many as 24 million handsets for the whole year. Just 8.7 million phones shipped in the first six months, most of which were delivered in the spring.
Whether or not HTC reaches its target isn't as clear. The suppliers speaking to DigiTimes claim that the shortages significantly hurt the Taiwan company's ability to ship phones on time. Its ability to honor its second half shipments may still be in doubt as it has to switch display technologies entirely and is still delaying shipments of some phones, like the Droid Incredible, by as much as a month.
The figure is unlikely to significantly threaten Apple, which shipped over 8.7 million phones in just the first three months of the year, but would help HTC cement its lead over Motorola and could see the gap with the iPhone maker narrow considerably.
