Samsung sales fly while HTC flops
HTC has reported its first quarterly profit decline in two years as it struggled to compete with stiffer competition from rivals such as Samsung, which registered “record” smartphone sales in the same period.
Net profit at HTC fell 25% year-on-year to 11bn Taiwan dollars (£235m) in the three months to December, although full-year profit was up 57% to 62bn Taiwan dollars (£1.3bn). Revenue fell 2.5% to 101bn Taiwan dollars (£2.1bn) in the quarter.
The Taiwanese company did not comment further on the results but had said in October it had expected to report weaker numbers due to “uncertainties from new models”.
HTC, which was one of the first manufacturers to adopt the Android operating system across its range and marked several quarters of consistent revenue growth, has come under increasing competition in recent months from rivals that also run the Google-owned software on their high end handsets.
Rival Samsung, says it expects to report a 73% jump in operating profits to 5.2bn won (£2.9bn) for the last three months of 2011.
The company overtook Apple as the world’s biggest selling smartphone maker last year, boosted by the launch of its Galaxy S2 handset, which has been backed by a major marketing campaign and earned the plaudits of technology commentators.
Samsung says it recorded its best ever sales of smartphones in the three month period to December.
The South Korean company today (6 January) announced the appointment of former Orange Group devices marketing director Gareth Abel as its mobile marketing director for the UK.
Abel replaces Batyr Bulat who left in March last year “for personal reasons”, and will be responsible for the marketing and go-to-market strategy for all products within the mobile division. He will report to Simon Stanford, managing director of the UK and Ireland telecommunications division.
