14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC projected a while ago that it would be able to see a double-digit growth during the ongoing year, despite the economic slowdown that affected the mobile phone market. However, it seems that the financial turmoil has taken its toll on the company's results for the first quarter of 2009 as well.
The latest reports show that things haven't gone so well for the mobile phone maker, which saw its profits go down by around 30 percent during said time frame. In Q1 2009, HTC registered profits of NT$4.89 billion (US$148 million), and, while still showing profitability, the results imply that the economic crisis determines companies to become more competitive in order to be able to rise their market share to new levels.
In the first quarter of the year, HTC managed to register a revenue of NT$31.59 billion (US$954 million), which is lower than the NT$32.70 billion (US$988 million) it reported for the first quarter of last year.
According to the mobile phone maker, its profits have been greatly affected by some delayed product shipments. The second smartphone powered by the Google Android operating system, the HTC Magic, has bee slated for launch in the UK on May 1, yet it seems that it will be delayed beyond that date, although it would still come in May. The pushback is said to be the result of “last minute hardware changes” to the handset, reports Pocket-Lint, yet no further details are available.
At the same time, it’s a common fact that the company's HTC Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2 smartphones are also waiting to make their entrance on the scene, which means that the phone maker will still have to make profits out of the already available devices it has on the market. On the other hand, as soon as these phones will hit the shelves, the expected double-digit growth might indeed become visible.