EXCLUSIVE-HTC sees '09 US phone sales up 50 pct

(Refiles to drop extra words from the first paragraph)

*Sees U.S. phone sales volume up at least 50 pct this year

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - HTC Corp (2498.TW) sees U.S. phone unit sales increasing by "at least 50 percent" this year boosted by devices based on Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Android system, the head of its U.S. business said on Wednesday.

"I expect to grow U.S. volume by at least 50 percent from 2008 to 2009," Jason Mackenzie, vice president for HTC America told Reuters in an interview, noting that this would imply sales of about 6 million phones this year.

He said HTC, which also makes phones using Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) software, would boost sales despite the weak economy and stiff competition from rivals such as Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and BlackBerry from Research In Motion (RIM.TO).

HTC was first to launch phones based on Google's Android system last year. It plans to start selling a new phone based on the system via No. 4 U.S. mobile service T-Mobile USA in August. T-Mobile USA is owned by Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE).

Rivals such as Motorola Inc (MOT.N) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) are also planning to sell Android phones.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Carol Bishopric)

((email:sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-6186)) Keywords: HTC/USPHONESALES

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