HTC's Combined Revenue of NT$30.942 B. for Nov. Hits 14-month Low

Taipei, Dec. 8, 2011 (CENS)--Mainly affected by hot sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S, the Taiwan-based HTC Corp., a globally leading supplier of smartphones, saw its combined revenue hit a 14-month nadir of NT$30.942 billion in October, down 30% from a month earlier or 20% from a year ago, according to the firm's latest financial statements.

For the past 11 months of this year, the firm raked in NT$439.432 billion in aggregate revenue, for a 78.87% increase over a year earlier. Based on HTC's financial forecast, institutional investors opine that the firm's sales revenue is likely to slide to around NT$29 billion in December.

The investors pointed out that the firm's plummeting revenue seen in November was primarily caused by the launch of Apple's iPhone 4S in the U.S., which has eroded the HTC's sales in the market. Presently, about 40-50% of HTC's sales are generated in the country alone.

They furthered that the joining of Sprint in Apple's distribution network since the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year has also impacted HTC's sales performance.

In the past, Sprint, one of top three telecom companies in North America, worked quite closely with HTC on joint promotion of smartphones and developments of WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access). Not long ago, the telecom firm even announced a plan to develop 4G LTE (long term evolution)-enabled phones in cooperation with the hardware partner starting in 2012.

However, since putting iPhone 4S on its product shelf, Sprint has dedicated most of its promotional resources to the hot-seller. This, institutional investors said, has crowded out HTC's smartphones retailed by the telecom, and undermined the Taiwanese company's sales as a result.

In addition to eroded sales in the U.S., HTC has also been fretted by a persistently slack market in Europe, which contributes about 30% to the firm's sales for the moment. Therefore, some institutional investors opine that the firm may witness business downturns for a while, considering that its banner sales in Asia Pacific are still unable to offset declines in the U.S. and Europe.