Estimates from industry sources point that HTC is to ship over 10 million 4G smartphones in 2011

During CES 2011, three 4G HTC smartphones were announced - Verizon's HTC ThunderBolt, AT&T's HTC Inspire 4G and Sprint's HTC EVO Shift 4G, which was released earlier today. Citing "estimates from industry sources", DigiTimes alleges that HTC is to ship over 10 million 4G smartphones worldwide, which will account for 20% of all shipments made by the Taiwanese manufacturer.

It's calculated that HTC delivered 3.5 million 4G smartphones to the retailers last year - 3 million of Sprint's HTC EVO 4G and half a million of T-Mobile's myTouch 4G.

Reportedly, HTC plans to ship a few 4G-supporting handsets in Japan and Europe, which may explain the 10 million prediction made by these unnamed sources.

HTC has proved to be a "quietly brilliant" smartphone manufacturer and its success is well-deserved, but do you think these numbers are realistic?

source: DigiTimes