Taiwanese smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said that its revenue might drop further in the first quarter, before recovering in the second quarter with the aid of new products.
The Taoyuan-based company said it expected sales to be flat or show a sequential decline to between NT$50 billion and NT$60 billion (US$1.69 billion and US$2.03 billion) this quarter, from NT$60 billion last quarter.
It also forecast that gross margins would be flat or slightly down at between 21 percent and 23 percent, and that operating margin would stay low between 0.5 percent and 1 percent.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
PRODUCT LAUNCH
While HTC is set to launch new flagship products, called the M7 series, this month, sales are not expected to trend up until next quarter, HTC chief financial officer Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) told investors during a conference call.
“We are highly confident that our sales momentum will recover soon with the launch of new high-end products, helping the company post quarter-on-quarter growth,” Chang said.
Chang told investors that HTC is developing “exciting high-end products” aimed at helping the company become a high-end premium brand in the smartphone market.
Asked whether HTC plans to promote more products running Windows Phone 8 rather than phones running Android this year, Chang said the company was seeking a balanced product portfolio, adding that HTC would keep collaborating with operators to drive the sales momentum of the well-received HTC Butterfly and launch “the right products at the right time.”
MARKET SHARE
HTC hopes to regain global market share by selling high-end products in developed markets such as the US, Japan and Taiwan, and launching customized products in emerging markets, he said.
The company’s sales of NT$60 billion last quarter represented a decline of 14 percent quarter-on-quarter and 41 percent year-on-year, with sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa showing a sequential improvement, while those in South Asia missing forecasts.
Net income fell to NT$1 billion, down 74 percent from the previous quarter and down 91 percent from the previous year with a gross margin of 23 percent and an operating margin of 1 percent, HTC said.
HTC plans to launch multiple products and continue building distribution channels in emerging markets, primarily China, where product life cycles are short, to expand its local footprint, Chang said.
“2013 is very important for HTC to revive sales growth,” Chang said.
“We will be very proactive this year in capturing every opportunity that can lead us to becoming a leading smartphone brand, and we believe we can achieve our goal,” he added.
HTC’s shares closed down 1.55 percent at NT$285.50 in Taipei trading yesterday ahead of the company’s conference call, underperforming the broader market, which gained 0.86 percent.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS