Smartphone brand HTC Corp (宏達電) on Tuesday reported a net loss of NT$760 million (US$25.74 million) in the first quarter, marking the 16th consecutive quarter of losses.
Last quarter’s performance followed a net loss of NT$730 million in the fourth quarter of last year, with analysts attributing the results to escalating competition in the smartphone market.
Losses per share stood at NT$0.92, compared with NT$0.89 a quarter earlier and NT$1.25 a year earlier, HTC said.
Photo courtesy of HTC Corp via CNA
However, HTC’s gross margin in the first quarter rose to 37.8 percent from 33.7 percent in the previous quarter, with analysts attributing the improvement to a better product portfolio.
The figure was the company’s highest quarterly gross margin since 2018, when its quarterly gross profit turned positive.
HTC is seeking to become a player in the virtual reality (VR) market with a series of headsets, as it attempts to diversify its product mix and mitigate losses in the smartphone market.
However, the VR division contributes only a fraction of overall sales, unable to make up for the drop in smartphone sales, analysts said.
The company last year had the fifth-largest market share in the augmented reality and VR headset market in the Asia-Pacific region at 5.9 percent, up from 5.6 percent in 2020, a report by US-based International Data Corp (IDC) said.
Shipments of HTC’s VR headsets last year increased 70 percent from a year earlier, as the Vive Focus 3 and Vive Pro 2 have risen in popularity in the Chinese market, IDC said.
The rise in HTC shipments outpaced the regional average of 60.8 percent, with shipments in the Asia-Pacific region totaling 21.9 million units, it said.
Also exploring business opportunities in the metaverse market, HTC unveiled its Viverse platform at the MWC trade show in February, which the firm describes as an animated virtual world that is to be linked to its new smartphones.
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