HTC today posted more than stellar Q3 results. The Taiwan-based company saw a record third quarter that brought profit growth up to 68% on shipments of 13.2 million handsets, up 93% from the same quarter last year. Revenue grew 79% year-over-year to NT$135.82 billion and profit grew to NT$18.68 billion, or NT$22.07 per share.
The company has shown six consecutive quarters of revenue growth, and the average selling price of HTC’s smartphones grew 0.6% from the third quarter last year to $344. In discussing the smartphone manufacturers continued growth, Peter Chou, CEO of HTC said:
“We aim to lead the way as the smartphone market continues to expand and change rapidly.” He continued saying “We pride ourselves on anticipating market and consumer needs and addressing them before they are realized. We are growing rapidly and responsibly around the globe and continue to expand our leadership in new areas, such as LTE.”
All in all, HTC delivered on some pretty solid handsets in the third qaurter, which included the HTC Sensation XE and HTC Sensation XL (co-branded with Beats), and the HTC Rhyme (its “lifestyle” device targeted for women). Other phones followed some entry-level devices such as the HTC Explorer (India), the HTC Wildfire, and lastly, the HTC Titan and HTC Radar — which are the first smartphones to launch with the new Windows Phone “Mango” platform.
Despite all the good news, Samsung is still the king of the smartphone hill. What can HTC do to close the gap?