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.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS