HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said that its losses shrank last quarter, adding that it is upbeat about its new virtual reality (VR) and smartphone businesses this quarter in light of seasonally high demand for Christmas.
“We are happy with the sales [momentum] last quarter and this quarter. We are expecting to see a good seasonal demand during Christmas,” HTC president of smartphone and connected devices business Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) told a teleconference.
The company expects the HTC Vive’s momentum to extend into this quarter, while continuing to expand the VR device’s ecosystem and partnership in the industry, Chang said.
“I cannot disclose the actual shipments of Vive, but I can say the number is much higher than the 140,000 units as some news reports said,” he said.
Chang said HTC has been cutting down the product lines for some of its entry-level smartphone models over the past few quarters as part of the company’s restructuring plan.
HTC will continue to reduce the number of smartphone models and shift the focus to higher-priced handsets, Chang said.
“The number of smartphone models next year will be fewer than this year,” he said.
NOT ABANDONING
Chang said that does not mean HTC would reduce its resources for the smartphone business.
He said HTC will not put less effort into its smartphone or Internet of Things (IoT) businesses, because it believes the two segments will play important roles in the company’s long-term growth.
Chang’s comments came after HTC reported a less-than-expected net loss for last quarter at NT$1.8 billion (US$56.94 million).
The losses last quarter were smaller than the previous quarter’s losses of NT$3.1 billion and NT$4.5 billion a year earlier, company data showed.
That beat Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) estimate of NT$2.58 billion net losses and HSBC Securities Taiwan Corp’s forecast of NT$2.63 billion net losses.
Gross margin increased by 4.7 percentage points quarterly to 16.1 percent last quarter, while the company’s operating losses last quarter improved from the previous quarter’s minus-22.5 percent to minus-9 percent, the data showed.
HTC attributed the improving financial results to the sales momentum for the HTC Vive systems across consumer and enterprise markets.
LOWER COSTS
The increasing demand for its primary smartphones, as well as the firm’s continued efforts in lowering operational costs, also helped shrink its net losses last quarter, Chang said.
The smartphone business “almost” reached the break-even level, Chang added.
HTC shares fell by 2.65 percent to NT$91.9 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 0.68 percent.
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