HTC forecasts tough times continuing into Q4, reflects on Q3 'progress'

By Alex Dobie
published

HTC's finalized Q3 earnings report confirms what we already knew from the unaudited report a few weeks back — the Taiwanese manufacturer had a pretty dire quarter, leading to an operating loss of just over $100 million, the first in the company's history.

Posting a quarterly revenue of NT$47 billion, with a gross margin of 20.4% and an operating margin of -7.4%, net loss was reported at NT$3 billion, earnings per share after tax were -NT$3.58.

Despite this, HTC CEO Peter Chou reflected on "strong progress" made in Q3 in a statement with today's release. The report highlighted the quarter's many product launches, including the Verizon HTC One, HTC One Mini, One Max, Desires 601 and 300, and yes, even the Hello Kitty Butterfly S. The quarter also saw HTC launch a new marketing campaign in partnership with Robert Downey Jr., which it credits for a 12 percent increase in advertising awareness and a 15 percent boost in brand awareness. Meanwhile the partnership with Beats Audio came to an end, with HTC selling its remaining stake in the company for $415 million. HTC's latest phone, the One Max, was launched last month without any Beats software or branding.

The company's Q4 forecast points to hard times continuing to the end of 2013, with revenue between NT$40-45 billion, gross profit margins of 20% +/-1% and EPS (earnings per share) of NT$0.1 to NT$1.7. The forecast raises the prospect of a second quarter of losses should HTC miss its targets by even a small amount.

Stock Talk: HTC's Q3 loss isn't good, but neither is it unexpected

Source: HTC Investor Relations (opens in new tab), The Verge (opens in new tab)

Alex Dobie
Alex Dobie
Executive Editor

Alex was with Android Central for over a decade, producing written and video content for the site, and served as global Executive Editor from 2016 to 2022.

24 Comments
  • The end is near. RIP
  • i sure hope so. i was so damn excited to get the One, and i have the dreaded shit purple camera, which is ruining my whole experience. the best part, no one at HTC cares.
  • I still have hope they can find a place in the market , don't want to see a world were it's only apple and Samsung that would suck. My wife has an Htc One and Loves it I have An LG G2 =awesome, and we both share the nexus 7 2013. Posted via Android Central App
  • Maybe apple should buy HTC to use to build its own phones and get out from using Samsung to build their hardware for them since they despise Samsung so much it seems. What's going to happen to them if the litigation goes badly hypothetically? Would there even be an HTC after another giant payout to apple again. I don't think Google will buy out HTC nor Samsung. And I doubt the Taiwanese government would let a Chinese company buy HTC. Wish Chou would have lived up to his statement and left the company like he said he would, but he'd rather run the whole thing aground.
  • Learn to make phones with removable battery and expandable memory HTC, your ONE device looks good and all but your battery freaking sucks.. Posted via Android Central App VZW GS4 4G LTE
  • An SD card and removable battery will not mean the difference between selling phones and not selling phones to the average consumer. Posted via Android Central App
  • Don't waste your time. Certain logic and fallacies are beyond belief. Posted via Android Central App
  • I disagree.. If a phone doesn't have both then I don't want it. That's the only reason I went with the s4 instead of the one. Posted via Android Central App
  • So you're the average consumer? If you're reading this site, you most likely aren't.
  • I can't believe morons like you still post this same crap. Us on the forums make up like 1% of sales...An SD card is not going to save the company.
  • I guess you can say
    (•_•)
    ( •_•)>⌐■-■
    (⌐■_■)
    He got turb0wned
  • i also went with samsung since htc stopped putting a removable battery, i used to have the evo 4g then the evo 3d but thenn i switched to the gs2 and am glad i did , i did love my gs2 and my gs3 then my note 2 , now am rocking my gn3 which has everything i want including a removable battery and micro sd
  • The fact is that to the avg consumer, it's either Apple or Samsung, and the rest are also rans. It's HTCs job (and the rest) to figure out how they can remain relevant as a brand inside the minds of the general public. Not an easy task to tackle industry giants, but not impossible either with smart strategies. Posted via Android Central App on my white Nexus 4 with StraightTalk
  • Exactly, this is what i've been trying to tell people for a long time. In the average consumer eyes its iPhone and Galaxy=Android.
  • Absolutely. The latest news story about the EVO3D taking a bullet, made me think about your comment. The news person stated how HTC should use this story in their marketing. He then made a comment along the lines of (don't remember verbatim) ....people either have an iPhone, a Galaxy, or an HTC. Posted via Android Central App
  • I am no fanboy, because I've been on just about every smartphone platform out there from iphone to BB to Android and I am being dead fair here.
    HTC One is by far the best smartphone I have ever owned.
    From design to function to performance, it is by far the best. So I really don't understand them being killed in the market, and it is very very unfortunate.
  • I agree with you mostly. I've always been an HTC fan. I recently traded my One for an S4 just to see what the fuss was about, and the reception on the S4 is so much better it's ridiculous. Obviously I killed touchwiz and anything like it as soon as I got home from picking it up. Posted via Android Central App
  • They are getting killed because Apple and Samsung are two well known brands that have been releasing decent devices. General population doesn't know what's a HTC. Posted via Android Central App
  • HTC figured it all out but a generation too late. The One is an awesome product. However, Samsung figured it out with the SGS3 and hit the accelerator from there. Samsung also has the advantage of a diversified brand. I'm looking right now at a Samsung monitor. My TV at home is a Samsung. They also make major appliances, cameras, computers and many other things. There's no way HTC can compete with them in brand awareness.
  • Hello kitty didn't put them over the top? Damn they are in dire straits Posted via Android Central App
  • Next will be the 18k gold Hello Kitty model.
  • Samsung has hello kitty galaxy tabs lol Posted via Android Central App
  • HTC the best and f the rest.
  • Let's see how they bounce back in 2014. I'll even use my upgrade on the HTC 2 if they have 3000 mAh battery and 5" screen and go back to proper camera Posted via Android Central App