HTC has confirmed its Q3 net loss of NT$3 billion ($102.1 million) on NT$47 billion ($1.6 billion USD) in revenue. While some analysts are expecting HTC to post another quarterly loss in Q4, HTC is tightening up operations in an effort to reduce operating costs by 24 percent. HTC is hoping that this strategy will allow the company to pull in a Q4 profit of $0.003 to $0.058 per share which ranges anywhere from $2.5 million to $48 million. It may not be much, but it would be a step in the right direction. HTC’s bottom line will also be propped up by the sale of the company’s remaining stake in Beats Audio. HTC will be pocketing an additional $415 million from the sale.
Chialin Chang, HTC’s CFO said that HTC would also be looking at “broader products” for the quarter, hinting that the company may be looking at expanding mid-range smartphone offerings as we move into 2014. While HTC has always has a keen focus on top tier devices, the company’s smartphone market share has suffered as budget devices from Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi have flooded the market.
“We’re looking at broader products in this quarter…we aim for higher volume into 2014 that will give better profitability,”
– HTC CFO, Chialin Chang
We don’t necessarily see HTC abandoning halo devices like the HTC One, but there is an opportunity for HTC to create slightly cheaper versions of the HTC One mini and saturate the market by offering them to consumers through more service providers at a cheaper price. While the HTC One mini is widely available across Europe and Asia, it is currently an AT&T exclusive in the US.
DailyTech seems to indicate HTC will exit the high-end for now and focus on selling cheap devices. This wont last, HTC can not last like this. This is a terribly sad state for High Tech Computer. But we all know why this happened.