HTC has just put out unaudited results for its Q2, with profits down 83% on last year. The Taiwanese phone maker, which is battling for oxygen in the fiercely competitive Android OEM smartphone space dominated by South Korea’s Samsung, said its total revenues for the quarter reached NT$70.7 billion ($2.35 billion). Profits came in at NT$1.25 billion ($41.63 million), below analyst expectations, with earnings per share after tax standing at NT$1.50.
HTC’s Q2 profits were higher than the NT$85 million it made in the previous quarter but down from NT$7.40 billion it made a year earlier. The WSJ reports that the average expected net profit of seven analysts it polled for HTC’s Q2 was NT$2.0 billion, making for another sizeable miss for HTC.
The latest results put a dampener on some more positives signs last month. HTC’s sales in May surged 48.03% — its best uplift all year — but monthly revenues for June took a considerable dive, down 23.88% month-on-month and 26.43% year-on-year. That’s a worrying sign for the company which has been banking on its flagship HTC One handset keeping the tills ringing as it works to expand its portfolio, reconfigure its senior management team and reboot its marketing strategy.
The problem HTC faces is extremely fierce competition in the smartphone space, with rivals like Samsung wielding a huge portfolio of devices at multiple price-points taking more and more share of the market. HTC has announced a smaller, more affordable version of the HTC One — the HTC One Mini — which it will be hoping can grab share from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini but the One Mini has yet to hit shelves. Trying to turn around a phone business with just one star handset up for grabs is a huge ask.
A Google Play edition of the HTC One is due to go on sale next week, albeit alongside a Google Play edition of Samsung’s Galaxy S4.