HTC is off to a great start for 2010. Chief Executive Peter Chou recently mentioned that HTC is trending better than expected for the year: “It looks like the growth in the U.S market is faster than others.” He did not elaborate on which handsets are contributing to the market growth, but we can speculate that the DROID Eris, myTouch 3G Fender Edition, and the new T-Mobile HTC HD2 has a lot to do with it. According to HTC’s annual report, they shipped between 5.5 and 6 million phones in the U.S. in 2009. With Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G and Verizon’s HTC Incredible right around the corner, HTC should see significant growth and additional brand recognition. 
“They [Verizon and T-Mobile] started treating us as their first-tier suppliers last year,” Mr. Chou said, “It was difficult for us [to boost our sales] without their support. But their endorsements became a strong momentum” for growth.
HTC has also noted that their first-quarter net profit rose 3.1% over last year. Analysts believe HTC’s drive to improve brand recognition may be paying off and causing consumers to actually take notice of the brand for the first time in the U.S. market. Revenues at HTC rose 19% to NT$37.7 billion from NT$31.59 billion, much higher than the predicted NT$32 billion and NT$34 billion.
Revenues at HTC are expected to increase even more over the next few quarters as HTC starts to reap more benefits from their “YOU” marketing campaign that has rolled out in Europe and America. They also plan on seeing huge growth in the Chinese market and expect to sell four million to five million units by 2011, up from 1.6 million units sold in 2009.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
