HTC dismisses concerns of end to Android streak

HTC's CFO Winston Yung in an interview early Monday dismissed worries that its steep outlook drop was an indication of long-term trouble. He told Reuters that HTC had had six straight quarters of improving performance. Even the "most conservative" outlook at HTC had 45 million phones shipping in 2012, up from 25 million this year.

"I don't think it's so serious," Yung said.

He added that the company has "new LTE phones" for the US coming up as well as its typical "worldwide flagship" devices. While he wouldn't give clues, phones like the Edge or Ville are candidates for US releases.

The company still doesn't have an ideal future ahead. Its recent acquisition S3 lost its ITC ruling and may have seen HTC risk $300 million. Some phones and tablets from HTC are likely to be banned in Germany, although HTC has claimed that the technology is older and won't have a significant impact. When HTC dropped its forecast by 23 percent, it explicitly named competition as a key factor, hinting that it believed it would lose ground to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy line.

Along with having to contend the new models, HTC has lost a safe haven in Sprint. Until October, it didn't have to compete directly with Apple on the network and got first billing for phones like the Evo 3D and Evo 4G, which have now been relegated to secondary status.

By Electronista Staff