HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday sought to allay shareholders’ concerns as it outlined its turnaround plan centering on reinvigorating its struggling smartphone business with leading-edge technology.
In a bid to stay ahead of the curve, the company is forging ahead in artificial intelligence, 5G networking, blockchain, augmented reality and virtual reality (VR), HTC Corp chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said at an annual general meeting.
Innovations in these areas would bring unique features to the company’s branded smartphones at a time when devices are becoming increasingly commoditized and lacking in differentiation, Wang said.
Photo: CNA
The company could turn profitable this year and distribute dividends next year, she said.
HTC last month unveiled an initiative to build a native blockchain smartphone that supports decentralized applications based on the distributed ledger technology.
Dubbed Project Exodus, the unit would fetaure enhanced security and privacy and support popular cryptocurrencies, the company has said.
The company has also made progress in its VR business, as it now has the biggest content ecosystem in the world with more than 30,000 titles, Wang said.
However, shareholders, many of whom are nursing steep losses, appear skeptical, as these new areas still represent a very small part of total sales.
The company was only able to halt 11 quarters of consecutive losses when its bottom line returned to the black at the end of March this year, helped by a US$1.1 billion windfall from a partial sale of its smartphone unit to Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Wang said that the deal with Google, which includes HTC’s patents and intellectual property, affirms the company’s research and development capabilities.
She added that proceeds from the sale would allow the company to fund continued efforts into emerging technology trends over the next two years to create the smartphone of the future.
HTC shares yesterday dipped 1.06 percent to close at NT$56 in Taipei trading. The stock had stood at NT$1,300 in 2011.
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