HTC’s Growth Spurt Is Done (For Now)

HTC released their unaudited Q4 financials earlier this morning, and as expected, they indicate a disappointing decline for the Taiwanese hardware vendor.

The company’s net operating income was down to NT$12.9 billion ($426 million), a nearly $22 percent decline from their position this time last year. HTC’s revenues were similarly impacted — they only managed to pull in NT$101 billion ($3.35 billion), which represents a 2.49% year-over-year dip, and a nearly 25% decrease from their impressive Q3 figures.

HTC tried to downplay expectations for their Q4 performance in November by slashing their revenue forecasts by 20%, but the drop still must have stung. At the time, the company cited increased competition in the smartphone market as one of the key factors for their sinking financials, and they weren’t kidding. Samsung today posted some remarkable figures (even for Samsung), which makes HTC’s path going forward even rockier.

HTC may be temporarily down, but they’re not going out without a fight. HTC has hinted at big things to come in 2012, with one of the latest rumors du jour being the appearance of their first quad-core smartphone at MWC. I still think HTC’s best chance is to throw their considerable weight behind developing a flagship phone with some staying power as opposed to replacing new hardware with even newer hardware at a blistering pace. 2012 is still young — HTC has plenty of time to bounce back, but they’re going to have to work for it.