HTC has just reported their first quarter of 2017 earnings and it’s a bit of a mixed bag for the Taiwanese company. They are reporting NT$14.5 billion in revenue for the quarter, which is down from NT$22.2 billion in both Q3 and Q4 of 2016. They are also reporting an operating loss of NT$2.4 billion for the quarter, which is a slightly smaller operating loss than what they reported following the fourth quarter of last year. This is despite launching two new smartphones in the first quarter, including the HTC U Play and HTC U Ultra. Speaking of products, HTC says that their Vive Tracker has been very popular, since being announced in January.
Now while HTC did still report a loss, it was smaller than the past few quarters, and this is due to the company streamlining their costs in an attempt to save some money (similar to what Sprint is doing lately). They saved roughly 20% in operating expenses in the quarter. Dropping from NT$6.2 billion in the first quarter of 2016, to NT$4.7 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
While HTC is still not turning a profit, they are working to lower their operating costs so that their operating losses aren’t so large. However, they haven’t made a profit in over a year, and in fact their revenue for this quarter is the lowest in over a year. Even lower than the first quarter of 2016 where their revenue was around NT$14.8 billion. Now HTC did launch two smartphones in the first quarter, but they weren’t the big hits that HTC was hoping for, and both weren’t available everywhere (for instance, only the HTC U Ultra came to the US). Now with the company looking to put out the HTC U 11 (that’s the rumored name at this point) next week, it’s possible that things could start to look up for HTC. However, it’s unclear whether the HTC U 11 will be available in the second quarter or third quarter, seeing as it is being announced in the middle of the second quarter here. Of course, we’ll find out more next week when the HTC U 11 is made official.