HTC sees significant profit drop amid HTC One delay

[Shawn Knight]

The mobile phone industry is thriving like no other but of course that doesn’t exactly guarantee success as a vendor. HTC, Taiwan’s largest smartphone maker and one of the hottest brands just a few years ago, is one of several victims in the cutthroat industry as evident by their latest quarterly earnings report.

The struggling company suffered record low levels across the board while simultaneously missing revenue forecasts. For the first quarter ending in March, HTC recorded an unaudited net profit of $2.82 million compared to $33.2 million during the fourth quarter and a whopping $3.63 billion during the same quarter a year ago.

The company was expected to bring in between $1.66 to $1.99 billion in revenue but ultimately ended up earning just $1.42 billion. For reference, HTC collected $2 billion in revenue between October and December 2012.

HTC had an opportunity to go back on the offensive with their impressive HTC One smartphone but a shortage of camera components forced the manufacturer to delay its release in major markets like the US and Europe by about a month.

Unfortunately for HTC, that gave Samsung plenty of time to announce and prep the Galaxy S4 for launch. The HTC One will still be available before the S4 but it’ll only beat it to market by a few days – not a significant amount of time by any stretch of the imagination. Considering the massive momentum train that Samsung is riding at the moment, it’d be pretty shocking if HTC was able to derail it.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/52173-htc-sees-significant-profit-drop-amid-htc-one-delay.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

"Considering the massive momentum train that Samsung is riding at the moment, it'd be pretty shocking if HTC was able to derail it." And that momentum is about all Samsung has to go on if you've read any of the reviews on the One. Anandtech pretty much calls it the best phone ever. (http://www.anandtech.com/)

Marketing is clearly HTC's weak point right now, and it's very important they get their phone out before the S4. HTC's last phone the HTC One X got held up in customs by Apple's Android lawsuits and it allowed the S3 to be the sole Android flagship smartphone for a period of time. Months later we're talking about how HTC's profits are way down and Samsung is riding high.

If this phone doesn't have supply issues it will do very well.

 

[Littleczr]

Too bad, because it looks like a very god phone.

 

[Tygerstrike]

HTC had its really big boom when it launched the EVO line. It was very successful but as we all know in the cellphone world, dont try and ride last years model and expect this year results. As with all markets its all about "what have you done recently". Last year is done and over with. HTC started out right by giving a good solid phone. Now they need to continue the trend and release another good solid phone.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I really like this phone. But the only thing that irks me is the speakers (or whatever you call them) go along 85% of the width of the phone.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It's a shame. Although I've never owned a HTC phone, from what I've read & seen I really like them. I was seriously considering throwing in with them & dumping Samsung once my contract was up. It's not that I don't like Samsung but when the time comes to replace my S3 I'm going to downgrade to a mid range phone and I like the looks of HTC's models. Having owned a top of the range phone & realizing it's mainly about bragging rights I'm disillusioned. I'd rather have the extra scratch in my pocket. As swanky as the S4 & HTC One are, they're just not worth it in my opinion.

 

[Jad Chaar]

I agree with you Skid. A lot of Android models will give you the same experience for 100 bucks less.

 

[St1ckM4n]

It's just pathetic human culture. Everyone latched onto the iPhone like zombies, then they moved to Samsung because it was in your face and different (plus iPhone didn't change). HTC needs a lot more marketing. It needs to position itself as THE phone, not just an alternative.

 

[grumpiman]

"For the first quarter ending in March, HTC recorded an unaudited net profit of $2.82 million compared to $33.2 million during the fourth quarter and a whopping $3.63 billion during the same quarter a year ago."

I think you've got your numbers wrong here... the 3.63 billion is NT$ (not US$), unlike the other figures you quote. A significant drop nonetheless from Q1 last year, but probably due largely to the fact they were able to launch (and deliver!) the HTC One before the end of the quarter (unlike this year). Let's see what the numbers are like for Q2.

 

[Guest]

Why the looks of this phone is somewhat similar with iPhone at a glance? especially the front and that polished-line-side