HTC Records Further Profits As Recovery Continues

HTC has reported a second successive quarter of profits despite a continued decline in sales.

The Taiwanese manufacturer revealed today that it had earned NT$640m ($13m) in unaudited net profit during the July-September Q3 quarter.

This was far above analyst expectations and is a full turnaround from the same quarter last year, when the company recorded a loss of NT$3bn (£61.2m).

Overall, HTC’s unaudited quarterly revenue was NT$41.86bn (£855m) and operating profit was NT$0.16bn (£3.2m).

Up and down

Sales over the past quarter were somewhat tumultuous, with July seeing a 33 percent drop from the same month a year earlier, but recovered to rise by 10 percent in August compared with the year-earlier month, the company said.

Sales in September fell 7.9 percent on year to NT$16.7bn (£341m), the company said, adding that year-to-date revenue through September was down 13 percent to NT$140bn (£2.8bn).

The encouraging results had been expected by the company, which said in its last quarterly earnings briefing that improved efficiency in its sales and marketing operations would help the company maintain profitability in July-September.

HTC has enjoyed recent success with several of its recent handset launches, even if critical acclaim for devices such as the One M8 smartphone has not translated into large sales. According to reports earlier this week, the company is set to reveal a super-charged version of the device, dubbed the HTC One M8 Max, soon, as well as a camera accessory designed to compete with the popular GoPro device.

There have also been rumours that HTC has been signed up to make Google’s upcoming Nexus 9 tablet, which should arrive before the end of the year. Such a deal would be HTC’s first move into the tablet market since its ill-fated Flyer device, which sold poorly following its launch in 2011 and was pulled after nine months of being on sale.

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