T-Mobile USA has said that 1.5 million G1 Android phones have been preordered, which would be great news for the maker of the G1 if it didn't come at the expense of lower demand for its Windows Mobile-based units, according to an analyst.
“We think that in the early days this demand may cannibalize demand for Windows Mobile and that the incremental effect to HTC may not be that great,” Nomura analyst Richard Windsor wrote in a note on Monday.
“We think the demand will drop quite heavily after the initial launch, and continue to believe that real demand will take time to materialize,”he wrote.
Like many others Mr. Windsor underestimated the initial impact of the G1, which did not benefit from as splashy an entrance as the iPhone. He had forecast the sale of 100,000 devices in the fourth quarter, as a result of problems that would crop up because of the infancy of the Android software.
Holiday demand for the G1, which goes on sale October 22, could be affected by the presence of heavily marketed rivals.
The G1, which is aimed at the high end of the consumer market, will face the iPhone 3G and RIM’s Storm, among others.
Taipei, Taiwan-based HTC is a Microsoft partner with the majority of its phones sporting the Windows Mobile operating system. The firm has been on a roll lately with 30 percent year-over-year growth through September.