HTC profits drop 70%, company cites Apple's iPhone 4S as biggest cause

[Tech Star]

Before Apple posted yet another blowout quarter, rival HTC revealed its profits dropped 70 percent thanks largely to the launch of Apple's iPhone 4S.

Apple's latest smartphone was specifically cited by HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou in an analyst briefing this week, according to Reuters. He revealed that HTC, which used to earn more than 50 percent of its revenue from the U.S., will not regain that stature in America.

"A major challenge we faced last year was the big drop in sales in the U.S. because of competition from the iPhone 4S," Chou said. His company saw its net profit in the first quarter of 2012 drop 70 percent year over year to $151.5 million.

HTC hopes to regain some of the ground it has lost to both Apple and Samsung with its new "One" smartphones. They feature improved cameras as well as advanced audio technology.

Chou told investors and analysts that he is hopeful HTC will be "reborn" this year. He said it's the dawn of a "new" HTC that will better execute sales and marketing of itsproducts.

Though U.S. sales won't return to their previous levels, Chou is hopeful that the booming smartphone market in China will help to fill that void. Apple has had tremendous success in China, and revealed in its own conference call on Tuesday that iPhone sales in Greater China were five times greater in the first quarter of calendar 2012 than inthe same period a year prior.

After HTC's earnings disappointed, Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes reported on Wednesday that the company is working jointly with the social networking site Facebook to develop their own smartphone. The new Facebook phone will be launched in the third quarter of 2012 "at the earliest," sources reportedly told the publication.

The repot said that although HTC and Google previously worked together to build Nexus-branded smartphones, Google has since moved on and now works primarily with Samsung, the leading developer of Android-based phones.

HTC has apparently since moved on to partner with Facebook, and is developing a new smartphone that will "enable and integrate all functions available on the social networking site." The new smartphone will reportedly be a part of Facebook's development strategy when the company becomes publicly traded in the coming months.

News Source: http://www.appleinsi...gest_cause.html

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

That's it, I'm getting a Mac.

[Mr. Gibs]

"A major challenge we faced last year was the big drop in sales in the U.S. because of competition from the iPhone 4S," Chou said. His company saw its net profit in the first quarter of 2012 drop 70 percent year over year to $151.5 million.

No the reason you saw a loss was because you made 600 devices that all looked the same, had no creativity in design and released them in a 6 month period. Customers don't like knowing their brand new device is obsolete and replaced with one that looks exactly the same 2 days later.

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

[Raa]

The "here's a good idea" wore a bit thin on me. Not saying I don't like HTC though (I do), but Samsung is seeing a lot of that gain at the moment!

[Auroka]

No the reason you saw a loss was because you made 600 devices that all looked the same, had no creativity in design and released them in a 6 month period. Customers don't like knowing their brand new device is obsolete and replaced with one that looks exactly the same 2 days later.

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

I completely agree with you.

HTC's product line is just way to big. They even make their own phones outdated within a few months.

I've been using an HTC Trophy for several months now and IMO the build quality is terrible.

[kizuran]

No the reason you saw a loss was because you made 600 devices that all looked the same, had no creativity in design and released them in a 6 month period. Customers don't like knowing their brand new device is obsolete and replaced with one that looks exactly the same 2 days later.

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

Agreed, -Razorfold. To add insult to injury, this is even counting their ridiculously unnecessary Sense UI-overlay & next-to-nonexistent flash storage in almost all of their mid & "budget conscious"-range of mobile devices. :/

They have absolutely no one to blame but themselves for this turnout.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

No the reason you saw a loss was because you made 600 devices that all looked the same, had no creativity in design and released them in a 6 month period. Customers don't like knowing their brand new device is obsolete and replaced with one that looks exactly the same 2 days later.

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

couldn't have said that better myself, HTC has been their own worst enemy since the beginning

the only deviation they've made from their original designs is they removed the scroll ball

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

imho Samsung lacked creativity as much as HTC did last year. Both released a bunch of similar looking devices.

The reason Samsung is in the black is because they had a Google support for their phone division and their product line, in general, is vastly bigger than that of HTC.

Samsung makes everything. HTC just focuses on phones. Even HTC's tablets haven't been as successul as Samsung's.

[FloatingFatMan]

No the reason you saw a loss was because you made 600 devices that all looked the same, had no creativity in design and released them in a 6 month period. Customers don't like knowing their brand new device is obsolete and replaced with one that looks exactly the same 2 days later.

Samsung has had the same competition with the iPhone 4S and they're doing just fine.

^ 100% this! HTC are a bunch of idiots.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Samsung is gonna turn into something like HTC soon

[scratch42069]

HTC started to lose when they started locking their bootloaders. Now that they aren't locking the bootloaders and they are unlockable they may see a rise in sales again.

[Bryan000]

They should be looking at Samsung, not Apple. if people want an iPhone, that's what they'll get... but if they want an android they shop around. Samsung is just whooping ass in that department right now with a very strong lineup of offering and great marketing.

Their competition is Samsung, not Apple. Until they can take on Samsung, they have no chance at Apple.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Somebody call the wambulance. Competition is a good thing, but if a company can't make a product that keeps up, this is what happens. It's probably time to boot out the executives and revamp the product timeline. It's pretty sad how the CEO pushes off his own failures as if it's Apple's fault. lulz...

[Astra.Xtreme]

double post.

[McKay]

Or maybe because until the release of the HTC One, they've released tonnes of ugly devices that haven't really differed from each other.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I think the confusing thing is that they expect to continually increase sales year on year for a product which most people end up buying tied into two or even three year contracts. The carriers, not to mention the ever increasing prices for handsets are what cause the problem.. they need to work on getting the features up and the prices down and surely they'd sell more product!

I used to upgrade my handset every year without fail and have owned mobile phones for probably 14 years. I've owned all sorts of stuff on just about every carrier in the UK. Now I'm sort of burned out by it all.. not least because of the longer contracts but also just because the changes now are so incremental that I don't see the point!

[Xenomorph]

Yeah, mean old Apple is the reason you're losing money.

It has NOTHING to do with the fact HTC releases phones like it has terrible diarrhea.

Instead of rapidly crapping out 25 phones a year, how about working on a few good ones that actually stand out?

I can't recall a single product they made.