HTC Corp (宏達電), which makes the world’s first mobile phone running the Android operating system, yesterday said sales hit a record high last month, indicating an early success of its new strategy to drive growth by expanding its product portfolio.
Last month, sales leapt 57.93 percent to NT$18.01 billion (US$567 million), compared with NT$11.41 billion a year ago, a company statement said. That also represented a 9.94 percent increase in sales of NT$16.38 billion in March.
“The figure is a bit higher than I expected,” said Lu Chia-lin (呂家霖), an analyst with Macquarie Securities, adding that better-than-expected sales last month indicated that the company was on track to hit its second-quarter sales target.
Last month, HTC told investors that revenues would grow about 33 percent quarter-on-quarter to about NT$50 billion in the current quarter, an all-time high, while smartphone shipments would expand more than 36 percent to 4.5 million units this quarter from last quarter.
“Better demand for its new products, such as HD2 and HTC Desire, could drive sales even higher in May, or be flat at least,” Lu said. “May should be the peak [in terms of sales].”
He said he had originally thought March would be the peak.
HTC has said its priority is to expand its product portfolio as one of its measures to boost shipments, operational efficiency and its brand this year.
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