HTC Corp Struggling, Posts First Ever Quarterly Loss Since 2002

HTC Corp (TPE:2498)  posted its first ever quarterly loss since going public in 2002 as it face stiff competition with mighty rivals like Apple and Samsung. The Taiwanese smartphone company posted a loss of NT$2.97 billion ($101 million) in the three months to September, which is more than the NT$ 1.8 billion net loss estimate by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. For the corresponding quarter of 2012, HTC reported profit of NT$3.9 billion.

HTC has performed the exact opposite to its rival Samsung who have forecasted record profit for the same quarter.

Recovery chances slim

To counter the likes of Apple and Samsung, HTC came up with really world class products like HTC One, which happens to be one of the best smartphones ever made, but the device could not do much for the sinking HTC.

Analysts have raised concerns over any possibility of recovery of this smartphone maker although HTC said that response for the newly launched products have been encouraging. HTC One launch was postponed due to technical glitches that affected profit by almost 70 percent during its 2012 first quarter.

BNP Paribas analyst, Laura Chen told BBC that there are “no signs” of a recovery anytime soon.

No Sell off

 Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC Corp has been consistently denting any consideration to sell off the company. She said that there are no plans to sell the company or to replace the current CEO Peter Chou. Further, she said that declining share price does not bother her.

According to research firm Gartner, worldwide smartphone market share of HTC Corp has declined from impressive 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011 to 2.6 percent in the latest quarter.

Issues surrounding HTC

Apart from grim financial scenario, HTC is also facing issues like exiting of executives and internal tussle. Additionally, the phone maker has lost few cases of patent rights and according to media reports three design executives of HTC were arrested as they were found suspicious of leaking secret trades.

HTC is also seeing shortcomings in its HTC One Mini Supply due to casing issues due to difficult to make designs according to a source acquainted with the matter. Stock of HTC Corp has performed poorly falling more than 50 percent over the past 12 months amidst concerns over the future.