HTC, a struggling Taiwanese based manufacturer, has reported its earnings for the fourth quarter. As expected the handset maker reported a crappy month of December, as the company seen a modest profit of just NT$1 billion ($34.5 million) — its lowest quarterly profit since 2004 — on NT$60 billion ($2.69 billion) in sales. This number came in way below what analysts’ projected, which hovered in around NT$1.48 billion.
There’s no doubt that the company has to step things up in 2013, as its competition will only grow to be even better than before. Somehow, HTC needs to figure out a way to put more of an emphasis on the way they market their top products. Last year’s One X was an awesome phone, but the company didn’t have the promotion or proper marketing push behind it. The device might have been a darling to us in the tech world, but it wasn’t a big player when it came to average consumers.
The best way for HTC to begin to fix some of its issues is to shrink its product line down, which is something it has already done by existing the tablet market altogether. The company’s biggest challenge will be to get the major carriers in the United States to play ball and carry the same flagship device seen internationally — no more variants. We saw Samsung do this in 2012 with the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S III. Going the Samsung and Apple route will help better set up its global brand when it comes to its flagship devices, as it’s one huge thing out of many that it needs to do.
Source: HTC