According to CENS, U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile expects to sell 400,000 to 500,000 of HTC’s G1 handset in the fourth quarter of this year alone and HTC is set to make over $210 million before the year’s end.

When people consider an iPhone, they automatically think of two companies: AT&T and Apple. The same could be said of the first Android phone - and while it’s still in its early days, the G1 is associated to T-Mobile and Google. Like it or not, people are inclined to forget that it’s HTC’s handset at all. However, if reported numbers are anything to go by, the company isn’t likely to complain anytime soon.

CNES reports, citing industry insiders, that the AT&T rival has plans to order between 1.5 and 2 million of the HTC handsets and between 400,000 and 500,000 of those will be off the shelves and out the door come new years. Indeed reports suggest that T-Mobile is already having trouble dealing with the high demand for the G1 during presales and it’s still over two weeks before the launch.

We’ve said before that the hype surrounding the G1 is nothing compared to the hype we saw with either of the iPhones Apple released. However, when you consider the number of iPhone “rivals” already out there, the anticipation surrounding the launch of this handset far outweighs the build up prior to the release of any other smartphone.

Taking into account the fact that these figures are based only on the U.S. release of the G1 (and HTC has plans to release it in other markets in the very near future), the company stands to make a significant amount of money from being the first to market an Android phone. In what could be a classic case of the early bird catching the worm, it’s possible HTC will rake in profits from early adopters and additional manufacturers developing handsets running the Google OS will be disappointed with sales.

(Via CENS)