Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday gave a lower-than-expected sales forecast of between NT$46 billion and NT$51 billion (US$1.49 billion and US$1.6 billion) for this quarter despite the launch of the firm’s flagship model One M9 last month.
The forecast represents quarterly growth of between 10.78 percent and 22.83 percent from last quarter’s NT$41.52 billion, which is lower than the market consensus estimate of 50 percent quarterly growth.
“Our intention is to have sequential growth this year,” HTC chief financial officer Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) told an investors’ conference in response to the relatively low figures.
HTC expects earnings per share to slide to between NT$0.06 and NT$0.34, from last quarter’s NT$0.43.
The company’s net income totaled NT$360 million last quarter, reversing a loss of NT$1.88 billion in the same period last year. On a quarterly basis, net income plunged 28 percent from NT$500 million.
Gross margin for this quarter is expected to grow to between 23 and 23.5 percent from 19.7 percent last quarter, the firm said.
HTC plans to enhance marketing for the non-smartphone segment and expects sales from non-smartphone products to be meaningful next year, contributing about 10 percent to total sales, Chang said.
HTC launched its first non-smartphone product — action camera HTC RE — in September last year and then unveiled the Grip professional fitness tracker wristband and the Vive virtual reality headset at the Mobile World Congress in Spain last month.
Grip and Vive represent the next steps in HTC’s diversification into the connected lifestyle space, a strategy that leverages the firm’s strengths in design and technology to extend the firm’s reach to consumers, HTC said in a statement.
Chang said that the company will continue to increase investments in research and development for non-smartphone products this year.
“What we are trying to do is to not just be known as a smartphone brand, but a lifestyle brand. We want to be a brand to connect with the world,” Chang said.
Commenting on HTC’s strategy in emerging markets, Chang said the firm is optimistic about the booming smartphone market in India, adding that HTC recently launched the flagship One M9 in India and does not rule out seeking a local assembly partner in the nation.
Chang said that apart from Taiwan and China, HTC also plans to roll out online stores in India and other South Asian countries, as well as Hong Kong and some European countries this year in a bid to increase the exposure of HTC’s products.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
A man walks past real-estate advertisements outside a house in Taipei yesterday. The central bank yesterday said it plans to establish an “Inflation-at-Risk” gauge as a supplementary tool for observing inflation, as policymakers express wish to communicate more effectively with the public when making inflation forecasts.
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS