HTC records strong growth, but slowdown ahead

HTC has reported Q3 profits 68 percent higher than for the same period last year. The growth was, however, much lower than it has shown in previous quarters, but was inline with market expectations due to the global economic slowdown. According to Reuters, the result has prompted the company to lower its guidance for fourth quarter revenue with with smartphone shipments in the order of 12-13 million, down from the 13.2 million it sold in the third quarter.

The company was particularly optimistic about its 4G LTE phones that it expects to launch in the first quarter next year, but also took the opportunity to shoot down rumors that it was planning on introducing phones below $100.

"We hope to capture the opportunities from customers migrating from feature phones to smartphones with our quality; that's something we won't compromise, we cannot launch low-end products," HTC Chief Financial Officer Winston Yung said.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi put forward the view that part of the reason HTC could be seeing a slight downturn in shipments is that many of its models compete with each other.

"They have many products really targeting a similar audience and this is never a good thing," Milanesi said.

"Although I believe HTC is still the vendor that has made more progress in building a company experience around Android, I think they need to look at their portfolio very carefully and rationalize it."

By Electronista Staff