Shipments of entry-level Android handsets with a price tag of below US$150 are likely to reach 20-25 million units in 2011 which could affect Nokia's performance, according to an estimate by Digitimes Research.

Shipments of sub-US$150 Android phones totaled only 2.5-3 million units in 2010, mostly shipped by China-based Huawei Technologies and ZTE. However, the number of sub-US$150 Android phones is likely to increase by 8-10 fold in 2011 resulting a substantial increase in shipments, Digitimes Research said.

Google's efforts to push Android phones to emerging markets, strong demand from markets in China, India, South America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Soviet Union, and a shift of telecom carriers in mature markets from feature phones to smartphones all work to stir up shipments of Android phones.

In addition to Huawei, ZTE, white-box handset makers in China and Taiwan-based ODMs, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Motorola are also likely to step up their presence in the entry-level Android segment, Digitimes Research said.

The increasing popularity of low-cost Android phones is expected to have a major impact on Symbian-based smartphones as Nokia is projecting merely a 10% sales growth rate for its smartphones, far below the 50% growth projected for the segment, Digitimes Research noted.