Bad news today from HTC: the company has released its earnings for the third quarter of 2013, and it's not looking good.
The Taiwanese smartphone maker has posted its first-ever quarterly loss, as sales for its handsets continue to underwhelm and its stock price reaches an eight-year low.
HTC have posted an operating loss of $3.5 billion New Taiwan dollars (US $119 million) for the quarter ending September 30th, with a net loss of NT $2.97 billion (US $101 million).
The company’s revenue of NT $47.05 billion (US $1.6 billion) fell short of its predicted figure of between NT $50 and $60 billion for this recent quarter.
While it's no surprise, as analysts had earlier predicted a figure of NT $1.8 billion in net losses, it's still a huge let-down for HTC and its investors.
Dark days for HTC
It’s been a troubling time for HTC. Aside from less than spectacular sales of its flagship HTC One handset, the company has experienced internal upheaval, including losing patent cases and seeing three of its design executives arrested on suspicion of leaking trade secrets.
There have also been reported manufacturing issues and delays, including reputed case shortages for the HTC One Mini.
Despite formerly being the leading seller worldwide of Android smartphones, HTC has seen a rough change of fortunes in the past few years as its revenues have continued to drop.
The company dropped out of the top 10 global smartphone makers halfway through this year, and its share of the global smartphone market has dropped from 9.1% in 2011 to just 2.6% in 2013.
The loss is the first posted by HTC since the company first went public in 2002. In a similar situation to competitors Nokia and Blackberry, HTC has found it difficult to maintain momentum against the likes of Apple and Samsung, the latter of which is expected to post record profits for this past quarter.
Here's to change
Despite the dismal outlook, there's still a chance for HTC to turn things around - although it won't happen overnight.
The company is expected to launch a new, phablet-sized smartphone in the coming weeks, and is also supposedly planning several low-cost smartphones aimed at the lucrative Chinese market.
We're crossing our fingers that a combination of innovative products and superhero endorsements can help HTC get back in the black.
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