Just a year ago HTC devices were flying off the shelves. Smartphones like the EVO and DROID INCREDIBLE 2 were sold-out. Fast forward present date and HTC can’t move anything. What happened , well in just a year alone Apple has released 2 smartphones (iPhone 4s & 5) and Samsung has surprised everyone with their Galaxy SIII device. So during the time HTC had devices flying off shelves the market wasn’t as packed with new devices. Now that its cluttered with good devices sales have stalled, and their HTC ONE smartphones are just sitting on shelves.
HTC said its revenue for the three months ending Dec. 31 will likely fall 41% to 60 billion New Taiwan dollars ($2.05 billion) from 101.42 billion New Taiwan dollars for the same period a year earlier. The company also expects its operating margin in the fourth quarter to drop to around 1%, the lowest level in a decade, from 12.7% a year earlier.
“We will continue investing in sales and marketing as brand is a very important factor in (consumers’) purchase decisions,” HTC Chief Financial Officer Chia-Lin Chang said Friday during a conference call with reporters and analysts.
Mr. Chang said higher marketing expenses and efforts to reduce inventories will continue to pressure the company’s margins.
Earlier this month, HTC reported that its net profit for the third quarter through September fell 79% from a year earlier to 3.9 billion New Taiwan dollars, its lowest quarterly profit since 2006.
[WSJ]
