It was always clear Q4 would be difficult for HTC, as the company continues to struggle to make itself heard in a space dominated by its Android OEM rival Samsung, but exactly how difficult has been made clear today: the Taiwanese smartphone maker has posted its lowest profit in eight years, according to Bloomberg.
HTC said unaudited Q4 net income was $1 billion Taiwanese dollars ($34 million) — which Reuters notes is a 91 per cent year-on-year drop. Or the lowest quarterly net-income since 2004, according to Bloomberg. For comparison, HTC posted an $11.02 billion Taiwanese dollars profit in the same period a year earlier, and $3.9 billion Taiwanese dollars in the previous quarter.
HTC’s Q4 revenue dropped 41 per cent to $60 billion Taiwanese dollars, in line with its expectations of the quarter from October, and similar to the $60.5 billion Taiwanese dollars average of 23 analyst estimates noted by Bloomberg.
Earlier this week, HTC CEO Peter Chou told the Wall Street Journal that the company expects 2013 to be easier — and blamed marketing shortcomings and fierce competition for a rough 2012. “Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front,” he said.
In a bid to correct its marketing shortcomings, HTC previously announced a new Chief Marketing Officer, Benjamin Ho, would be taking over this month — replacing the now former CMO John Wang.