Taiwan-based news outlet DigiTimes cited “industry sources” Friday in a report that claims cell phone manufacturer HTC will ship 60 million handsets in 2011, triple 2010’s number. It’s unclear as to whether this refers solely to smartphones or whether this also involves yet-to-be-released tablet devices.
As one of the biggest hardware manufacturers producing Android phones (from the successful Droid line to the discontinued Nexus One), this is a promising sign for the Google-built mobile operating system. HTC is also a big manufacturer of Windows Phone 7 devices, with the Surround on AT&T and the HD7 on T-Mobile.
No more information was provided in the DigiTimes rumor except that the sources in question floated the figure at a gathering of handset component suppliers in Taipei.