Plummeting Smartphone Sales Push HTC Further Into The Red

HTC could be set for a tough 2016 after its first quarter results revealed a major decline in revenues in the latest setback for the smartphone maker.

The Taiwanese firm reported a 64 percent fall in revenues in its first quarter 2016 results as sales of its smartphones dropped sharply due to the company preparing several new releases.

The results marked HTC’s fourth consecutive quarter in the red, as it reported an operating loss of 4.8 billion Taiwanese dollars (£102.4m) for the first quarter, compared to a small profit of 0.02 billion TWD (£427,000) in the previous year.

Troubled

Overall, HTC brought in 14.8 billion TWD (£315.8m) in revenues during Q1 2016, versus 41.5 billion TWD (£885.6m) in the same period last year, which helped the company break even.

It also saw a profit of 2.1 billion TWD (£448.2m) from selling land buildings in Taiwan, although this did not help ameliorate a net overall loss of 2.6 billion TWD (£554.8m).

The company will now be hoping that sales of its new flagship device, the HTC 10, revealed last month, along with its hotly-anticipated VR headset, the HTC Vive (pictured above), will lead to a swift revival in fortunes.

HTC said initial sales of both of these devices had been strong, with the Vive in particular selling out quickly after it went on pre-sale earlier this year.

This has led to hopes that the rest of the year may signal a return to profit, with company chief financial officer Chialin Chang predicting that the company should be able to break even by Q3 2016.

Chang also said that HTC would look to “trim expenses” through the current quarter and beyond, meaning that job cuts could be on the horizon for the company’s workforce, as well as continuing to “streamline processes and optimise resources to develop products in the most effective way.”

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