HTC has posted a decline in quarterly profits as new products failed to make an appreciable impact.
In an unscheduled trading update yesterday, the Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer said its net profit in the three months to December-end came in at NT$300 million (€7.3 million), compared to NT$1 billion noted over the same period last year.
HTC posted its first ever quarterly loss in the previous quarter. Only a one-off gain from a sale of its 24.84% stake in Dr Dre-backed Beats Electronic helped the firm avoid its second successive quarterly loss. HTC announced the sale of its remaining stake in Beats for €195 million in September 2013, thereby booking a €63 million pre-tax profit from the transaction.
Following on from the latest set of figures, the net calculations based on published data suggests that HTC has in effect posted its first annual loss in 2013 if one-off gains are excluded, though the company is yet to confirm it.
According to research firms IDC and Gartner, HTC’s share of the smartphone market declined to just over 2% in the third quarter of 2013, from a peak of 10% two years earlier.
The company was one of the early adopters of Google’s Android software for its smartphones. It recently attempted to regain lost ground with the launch of new models such as the HTC One, and signed-up Hollywood A-lister Robert Downey Jr. to promote the brand.
However, such moves have yet to bear fruit if the latest trading figures are anything to go by. Revenue for the quarter came in at NT$42.9 billion, which was within the company’s own NT$40 billion to NT$45 billion forecast provided in November.
IDG News Service
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