HTC, like many other Android manufacturers, have had trouble making a profit in the last few years. HTC has tried to turn their company around, and made a profit for a few quarters, but in the third quarter of this year, they reported a pretty big loss. That was a quarterly operating loss of NT$4.5 billion for the quarter. HTC is hoping that strong sales will turn that around in the fourth quarter.
According to HTC’s CFO and president of global sales, Chia-lin Chang, the company has seen strong pre-sale orders for the HTC One A9 – which was announced last month in New York City during a virtual reality event and is now available in some markets, with the rollout continuing throughout November and December. And the company is hoping that will continue through the rest of the quarter. Chang did also add that while they are looking toward improving sales numbers, that it’s unlikely to turn a profit in the fourth quarter.
On a related note, Chang also noted that the company has geared up efforts to promote their devices in the Middle East, India, North Africa and other emerging markets. HTC is also planning to market the One A9 pretty heavily in China starting in December.
HTC has stuck to their “One” branding, but has not stuck to just one device. The HTC One M9 was announced back in March and many customers weren’t too happy with it. Mainly because it looked like the previous two models. HTC did however upgrade the camera, but it still received some pretty mediocre reviews. And we’ve seen variations of the One M9 and One E9 in Asia this year as well. HTC has some great devices available, they just aren’t connecting with their customers. Arguably they need better advertising, but that’s not even working well for Samsung, who has also seen decreased sales in 2014 and 2015.
Unlike some other smartphone makers – Sony, Samsung and LG – HTC’s entire business is around smartphones and mobile products. Many smartphone makers aren’t making a profit in the mobile division of their company and that hurts companies like HTC the most. HTC has been working on some new products for their portfolio like the HTC Vive and HTC Grip, but both have recently seen delays in shipping.