HTC Corp, which makes cell phones including the Dopod brand, said yesterday that its sales won't be greatly effected by the global financial crisis and sales in China are expected to jump 50 percent year on year.

Most of HTC's products are smartphones and the sector will continue to grow despite an expected decrease in overall handset sales, said Jason Juang, HTC's executive vice president of global sales.

"Entry-level phone sales will shrink but people won't be able to resist smartphones," said Juang in Shanghai.

The market for smartphones will grow 8.9 percent year on year in 2009 while the total handset market is expected to decrease 1.9 percent annually, according to International Data Corp, an IT research firm.

HTC will mainly adopt Windows Mobile and Google's Android operating systems for its products in 2009.

(Shanghai Daily January 7, 2009)