This morning HTC released their earnings for the second quarter of 2012. Last quarter, HTC brought in roughly $3 billion, but with only $247 million profit. Even with their One Series and the EVO LTE on Sprint being some of the top sellers, devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and soon the Galaxy Note 2 are still drastically outselling HTC’s flagship devices. HTC’s predictions for the third quarter look even worse. Their analysts are expecting revenues to be in the $2.3 to $2.67 billion range.
HTC is forecasting that their third quarter revenue will be slightly higher than their first quarter of 2012, their gross and operating margins are looking to be pretty bleak. According to HTC’s Chief Financial Officer, Chialin Chang the only market that will see growth is China, other markets will be facing “different degrees of decline.” HTC will be posting its’ unaudited third quarter numbers in early October.
It’s looking like Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is no match for any of HTC’s devices. But it’s going to get even worse for HTC, Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Note 2 later this month in Berlin with launch probably sometime in December in the UK. We also have Sony and LG bringing out some new devices at IFA in Berlin this month. Motorola might also give HTC a run for its’ money as well with their Photon Q launching this month on Sprint, and the Atrix HD already out on AT&T, considering Motorola is now owned by Google it’s a big possibility that they will be making at least one of the next Nexus devices to run Google’s next iteration of Android, Key Lime Pie. Remember we did hear a rumor that there will be 5 Nexus devices launched this fall, so it’s not set in stone that we’ll see that many Nexus branded devices, but it sure would be awesome.
So what can HTC do to bring some actual competition to Samsung and bring up their profits? Perhaps bring us a few more phones built like the HTC One X? Or even build one of the 5 Nexus devices we are expecting to see this Fall launch with Key Lime Pie (either Android 4.2 or 5.0). HTC has been unusually quiet only launching the Droid Incredible 4G LTE on Verizon, which wasn’t much of a hit, since Mobile World Congress earlier this year, so I’m sure they have something big coming soon. Let’s hope it’s enough to bring their total revenue for the third quarter higher than they are predicting. I’d hate for Android to lose a top OEM like HTC, competition is great between manufacturers using the same operating system.