HTC on Friday posted its consolidated financial results for the second quarter of the year, revealing that it recorded a $72.47 million loss over the three-month period ending June 30 with an operating loss margin of 13.6 percentage points. The company’s net loss after tax amounted to just over $64 million, or $0.078 per share. The Taoyuan, Taiwan-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) still expressed a number of reasons for optimism, including its 13.7 percent gross margin and a quarterly revenue of more than $530 million, an 11 percent increase compared to Q1 2017. Despite the loss, the second quarter of the year was the best one HTC recorded since Q1 2015 when it posted a profit of $11 million and the company is convinced that its recently improving performance is a strong indicator that it’s set to return to the black in the near future.
While HTC stated that the sales of the U11 were one of the main reasons for most positive signs recorded over the second quarter of 2017, no specific figures were given for the smartphone. The U11 is HTC’s second premium device released this year after the U Ultra and is the first phone from the Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer powered by the Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip (SoC). Despite the fact that the device was received by reviewers in a largely positive manner and that HTC committed significant resources to advertising it in the West, its commercial performance seemingly wasn’t as high outside of the company’s home country where it started dominating the sales charts as soon as it hit the market in May, according to HTC. The second quarter of the year also saw the tech giant continue its efforts to streamline manufacturing processes, allowing it to save 6.5 percentage points of its previous operating expenses.
HTC’s latest consolidated financial report doesn’t come as a large surprise since the firm is one of the few major players in the tech industry that release monthly financial results and already confirmed that the HTC U11 is doing well in early July, consequently preparing investors for a more positive quarterly report that has now been published. The company also confirmed that it’s looking to continue pursuing its VR ambitions in the short term but gave no new details on the matter as part of its latest financials.