Global smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) said yesterday that it is upbeat about its outlook in the second half of this year, expecting sound growth in revenue, profit and shipment figures.
Peter Chou (周永明), chief executive officer of HTC, said at a shareholder meeting that the company will maintain the momentum it built up with its strong growth in the first half of the year.
“If we hadn’t encountered a component shortage, we would have had an even better performance in April and May,” he said.
HTC registered record monthly revenues for two consecutive months in April and last month, which the company attributed to strong market demand for its high-end mobile phones.
Revenue up
In the first five months of the year, the company registered revenue of NT$74.37 billion (US$2.31 billion), up 34 percent from the same period last year.
Despite the large global smartphone market, Chou said HTC was just like a regional team that “accidentally” entered the top four in a world tournament.
Chou, however, said that HTC remains confident about the company’s ability to keep up with its strongest competitors.
According to Canalys, a global research institute that focuses on smartphones, Nokia retained its worldwide smartphone lead during the first quarter this year, with a market share of 38.8 percent.
RIM held onto second place at 19.2 percent, while Apple reached 15.9 percent.
Market share
HTC has a market share of 5.1 percent and Motorola 4.7 percent.
Chou also said that HTC has made significant progress in branding.
According to the company’s internal evaluation index, HTC’s brand awareness was only 10 percent at the end of last year and rose to about 40 percent at present.
It is expected to reach 60 percent by the end of this year, he said.
Meanwhile, at the shareholders meeting, HTC distributed a dividend of NT$26.5 per share for this year — the highest among all listed companies on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company earned net profits of NT$22.6 billion, or NT$28.71 per share, last year.
Its consolidated revenue was NT$144.5 billion last year, with total cellphone shipments of 11.71 million units and an average price of NT$11,661.
The company also said that 3G wireless products accounted for over 95 percent of its total shipments last year, with a gross profit rate of 31.9 percent.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS