HTC predicts 600k G1 sales by Christmas

HTC has predicted that it'll sell more than 600,000 of its T-Mobile G1 handsets by the end of the year 

The forecast was made by CEO Peter Chou in an interview with The Mercury News, and is the first time HTC has put a figure to expected sales of the device.

Chou says that's "more than what we originally planned", although the prediction will dampen down talk of T-Mobile having pre-sold 1.5 million of the handsets before last week's launch.

Of course, the G1 may do better than Chou's prediction it's not exactly bad news for HTC if, come January, it gets to announce that the handset beat these expectations.

Chou is also positive about the likely growth of the smartphone sector, including Android but also other operating systems.

"From what I've learned from talking with mobile operators around the world, my gut feeling is 40 to 50 per cent of mobile phones could be these kinds of converged data devices within the next five years," he says.