HTC’s losses widen as flagship smartphone attracts slim sales
TAIWANESE smartphone firm HTC reported a wider than expected first-quarter loss as its flagship smartphones continue to attract modest sales.
Despite the rave reviews that HTC’s recent devices have received, the company posted a 22.6 per cent drop in revenues to 33.12bn Taiwanese dollars (£659m).
“The company expects to see positive trajectory of its revenue in April from March and forecasts quarter-on-quarter revenue growth in the second quarter,” said HTC in its results statement.
HTC said it had broken 28 months of revenue declines with a BY OLIVER SMITH rise of 2.16 per cent in March, and said it expected to return to profit next quarter, thanks in part to the late-March release of its upgraded flagship smartphone, the HTC One M8 that went on sale last month.
HTC was once a firm third to Apple and Samsung, selling 10 per cent of smartphones globally just two years ago, but it ended 2013 with a market share of around two per cent.
The smartphone maker has lost nearly 75 per cent of its market value in the last two years and is now worth about £2.6bn, dwarfed by rivals like Apple and Samsung.
HTC faces rising competition from the likes of Lenovo, which recently acquired Google’s Motorola division, and Chinese manufacturers such as ZTE.
Last quarter HTC managed to turn a slim profit of 300m Taiwanese dollars, compared to its loss making third quarter, after the sale of its 2.5bn Taiwanese dollar stake in Beats Electronics.