HTC expects revenue to fall in Q3

TAIPEI, July 31 (AFP): Taiwan's struggling smartphone maker HTC said Thursday it expected revenue in the July-September quarter to drop up to 35 per cent from Q2 as sales slowed for some products.
HTC estimated that revenue in the third quarter to be in the range of Tw$42 billion-Tw$47 billion ($1.4 billion-$1.57 billion), down 28 percent to 35 percent from the previous quarter when revenue almost doubled to Tw$65.1 billion on-quarter.
Gross profit margin in the current quarter is estimated to be 22.5 per cent to 23.0 per cent while earning per share is expected to be in the range of Tw$0.05-Tw$0.69, it said in a statement.
"Some of our products, after the initial excitement, have settled at a lower level," chief financial officer Chialin Chang said. "But the good thing is it is stabilised."
HTC's net profit came in at Tw$2.3 billion in the second quarter, aided by the good sales of its new flagship smartphone HTC One M8 and other models, the company said.
That was up 80 per cent on-year and much improved from a net loss of Tw$1.88 billion in the first quarter, when sales hit a three-month low.
The HTC One M8 and Desire 816 dominated in the Taiwan market while sales momentum was "sound" in China and India in that period, the company said.