14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan-based mobile phone maker HTC is looking with high hopes at Q2 of the ongoing year. According to the company, its revenues in the quarter should be of around $1.6 billion, while shipments of its devices are expected to top 4.5 million units. The growth should be fueled by the popularity Android-based smartphones enjoy on the market.
As a recent article on Financial Times indicates, Cheng Hui-ming, HTC chief financial officer, recently stated that the growth registered by Google's Android operating system should influence a lot its revenues for the second quarter. The increase in shipments the phone maker expects should be of around 50 percent, up from the 3.3 million devices it shipped in the first quarter of the year.
However, it seems that the handset vendor does not place the bet on the Android platform alone. The company has a long-standing relationship with Microsoft, and is the largest provider of smartphones powered by Windows Mobile, and it will come to the market during 2010 with a Windows Phone 7-based device. Not to mention that it has already unveiled a low-cost smartphone running under Qualcomm's Brew MP platform, the HTC Smart.
All in all, the recently launched Android-based HTC Desire, Legend and Incredible should help HTC achieve its goal helped by other handsets too, such as the Windows Mobile-based HTC HD2 and HD Mini, or the Brew MP-powered Smart. HTC EVO 4G, the first phone to put together WiMAX and Android, is another growth factor that should be taken into consideration, as well as the already popular Nexus One, which has just arrived on the market in the UK.
A post on DigiTimes notes that, in case HTC reaches its goal, its handset shipments for the first half of the ongoing year should go up 40 percent when compared to the same time frame 12 months ago. The gross margin for the second quarter should be of 29.5 to 30.5 percent, down from Q1. It should be interesting to watch the company's ASP (average selling price) for the time frame, especially since it went down to US$339 in Q1, from US$348 in the previous quarter (shipments in the period increased by 37 percent).