With HTC’s smartphone business continuing to show no signs of improvement, the Taiwanese tech company has now reported an alarming 79% YoY drop in its consolidated revenues for the month of March, 2016. According to reports in the local media, HTC’s March revenues of NT$4.14 billion (US$127.57 million) also represents a 1.34% drop sequentially over its revenues in February this year. The company’s Year-to-Date revenues of NT$14.821 billion from April, 2015 to March, 2016 is also lower by a staggering 64.31% when compared to its revenues from the corresponding period in 2014-2015. The disappointing set of numbers is thought to be the result of HTC’s recent smartphone models not being able to compete with those from its competitors like Samsung and Apple at the premium end and a complete absence from the mid and entry-level segments in critical emerging markets like China and India.
Even though the investors would have already had a whiff of the troubles that the company has been facing with the complete lack of traction for its recent products, they showed their disapproval at the new figures anyways, with the company’s stock price dipping 1.88% during trade at the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) on Wednesday, ending the day at NT$86.5 ($2.67). Talking about the company’s stock price, last August, HTC’s shares were actually trading below the company’s market value for a while, as it fell to a low of NT$56.80 ($1.79) at the Taipei Stock Exchange before rallying to close the day slightly higher at NT$57.70 ($1.82).
While the One M9 and the One A9 are two of the newer premium HTC smartphones currently in the market, neither seem to have caught the imagination of buyers the way HTC would have wanted. That being the case, the company’s management and employees must be hoping that its upcoming handset, the HTC 10 (codenamed ‘Perfume’), should be able to turn around the fortunes of the company. However, along with the HTC 10, which will be HTC’s flagship smartphone for this year, the company has yet another trick up its sleeve. That would be the product that most within the company are actually pretty excited about – the Vive virtual reality headset, which was developed in association with Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer and digital distribution company, Valve Corporation.