HTC Profits Fall 90% to the Lowest Level Since 2004

HTC has reported a drop in profits of more than 90 percent for the fourth quarter of 2012, from 10bn Taiwanese dollars last year to one billion, as sales fell 40 percent to 60bn Taiwanese dollars.

The Q4 results equal the company's lowest quarterly profit since 2004, compounding the difficult position the company has found itself in, despite offering the impressive HTC One X+ and flagship Windows Phone 8 device, the HTC 8X.

Last week, HTC boss Peter Chou said he believes that the "worst for HTC has probably passed", and that the company struggled recently because its competitors "were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing...we haven't done enough on the marketing front."

At 60bn Taiwanese dollars, revenue missed analysts' expectations by half a million, but fell in line with HTC's own predictions published in October, of a quarter that would seen the lowest revenue in 11 quarters.

Jeff Pu, a Taipei-based analyst at Fubon Financial Holding, said: "HTC's operating margin barely met expectations and December sales were below what many expected. It's due to non-operating items that net income was as high because some models were not selling as well in the US and China."

However, it must be said that, while HTC cannot compete with Apple and Samsung, it is still in a better position than fellow Windows Phone manufacturer Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

According to Bloomberg, HTC's share of the global smartphone market fell to 4.6 percent in the third quarter, down from 10.3 percent the previous year, and the company's share of the US market fell from 11.6 to 3.6 percent in the same time.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2013, analysts expect net income to climb to 2.16bn Taiwanese dollars on sales of 61.8bn.

Neither of HTC's Windows Phone 8 devices - the 8X and 8S - were on sale for all of the last quarter, and neither was the flagship Butterfly J in Japan, so it will be Q1 of 2013 that shows the real impact, if any, these three devices have had.

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