HTC takes 17% year-on-year January sales hit
updated 01:55 pm EST, Fri February 6, 2009
HTC January 2009 Results
HTC confirmed its sensitivity to the poor world economy on Friday with word that it has taken a substantial blow to its sales in January. Although it had a healthy end of 2008 where its revenues were up 21.4 percent compared to holiday 2007, the company warns that its results in January are well off the same month a year before and dropped about 16.8 percent versus the same month a year earlier. HTC claims the drop is due to a slightly earlier Lunar New Year that stopped some of its phone sales in countries that observe the Chinese holiday.
However, the cellphone maker doesn't explain performance for Europe, North America and other areas that don't mark the occasion, suggesting the company has also been affected by international sales. HTC's decline comes in spite of launching multiple new phones at the end of 2008, including the Android-based T-Mobile G1. In November, HTC had estimated 3 million sales of its signature Touch Diamond phone by the end of that year but hadn't predicted results past that point.
HTC is still optimistic that it can maintain a small, single-digit amount of growth in revenue through the winter and a "double digit" amount throughout all of 2009. More phones are due from HTC in the spring and should include the T-Mobile G2 as well as more Windows Mobile phones.
