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High Tech Computer surprises pundits with a record haul

High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's largest maker of handsets running on Microsoft Corp's operating system, yesterday announced a record high in its October earnings, which has surprised the industry.

Driven by new model shipments, the company posted revenues of NT$10.71 billion (US$325 million) last month, beating industry estimations of between NT$10 billion and NT$10.5 billion.

Sales last month rose 20.6 percent over September, and were up by 24.9 percent compared with the same period last year.

On Thursday, CLSA Ltd raised doubts that the maker's revenues would hit the brokerage's estimate of NT$10.5 billion after HTC was hindered by issues such as component defects and shortages.

HTC was reported to have discovered defective connectors from supplier Singatron Enterprise Co (信音) in a batch of smartphones before shipping them to Palm Inc at the end of last quarter.

Replacement costs will run as high as NT$5 million, which HTC said would be discussed with Singatron as a possible split expense.

CLSA also said that HTC has a component shortage in touch screen panels, which has impacted on shipments of two out of three major HTC models in the fourth quarter.

HTC shares closed up 1.4 percent at NT$785 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The jump followed a slump of nearly 7 percent -- the daily limit -- to NT$774 on the day before.
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