It’s that time of year, and now it’s HTC’s turn to publish their Q4 2013 financials and, unsurprisingly, things aren’t that good. Having said that though, it’s not the doom and gloom that many were expecting and we definitely can’t count HTC out just yet. It’s unfortunate to see the company struggle with results like these, but it’s these hard lessons that could turn the company around into an altogether more successful entity. Their Q4 2013 results aren’t what the company was hoping for, but HTC have announced plans to focus on more profitable areas going forward, such as mid-range devices and emerging markets.
For Q4 2013, the company managed to post a $10 Million net profit, but their operating margin was negative to the tune of 3.7%. Revenue was the big issue here, with it once again falling, this time from NT$60 Billion for all of 2012, to just NT$42 Billion for all of 2013. In conversion terms, that’s a fall of $2 Billion to $1.4 Billion, which isn’t all that bad considering the company has fewer devices on sale and has the giant marketing machine that is Samsung to contend with. Figures like these are never fun to read, and we’re sure that HTC didn’t exactly enjoy revealing them, either. It might seem like HTC’s downward spiral is continuing and with results like these, it’s hard to see how they’re going to climb back up the ladder. Still, there is hope and Peter Cho, CEO of HTC, said that the company is to “communicate better with consumers”. We certainly hope that Chou is talking about marketing here, as even a deal with Iron Man himself couldn’t help boost HTC’s brand presence like they needed it to. Marketing is perhaps one of the biggest issues for HTC right now and if they don’t right the ship soon, people might forget about HTC altogether.
Going forward into 2014 and things don’t all that better, with the company forecasting lower revenue of NT$35 Billion ($1.15 Billion US) for the beginning of this year. With an upcoming successor to the HTC One, we’re hoping that HTC has what it takes to pull things around, otherwise this could be the last truly “high-end” device we see from the Taiwanese manufacturer.