Research in Motion isn’t the only one experiencing trouble in the mobile phone industry this year, as the former behemoth HTC has also reported a substantial drop in its quarterly profits, with unaudited results for Q2 2012 totaling T$7.4 billion ($250 million), down from T$17.52 billion a year ago.
These numbers are an improvement over the company’s Q1 2012 numbers, but are still a good distance from where HTC needs or wants to be.
Sales continue to have trouble despite the company’s continued distribution of the popular One series of smartphones, and have not changed in the period going from May to June, which ends up being 33.4 percent less than the numbers from a year ago.
“In the high-end market, there are Samsung and Apple. In the low-end market, even though HTC wants to gain traction in China, its phones are price uncompetitive,” said KGI Securities analyst, Richard Ko. “HTC’s scale and margin are a lot lower compared to Samsung and Apple. It will see much pressure in the short to medium term.”
HTC cited the poor economic situation in Europe as the main reason for its drop in consumer demand in the region, and delays to shipments of new phones to the United States due to a requirement for customs inspections after it lost a patent dispute with Apple.