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HTC profit down 83 percent from last year despite flagship launch

HTC profit down 83 percent from last year despite flagship launch

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HTC has just announced its unaudited results for the second quarter 2013, and they're not pretty. Despite launching a much-lauded flagship smartphone, the HTC One, the company made just NT$1.25 billion (roughly $41 million) after tax from NT$70.7 billion ($2.35 billion) revenue. In the same quarter last year, the company took in revenue of NT$91.04 billion ($3 billion) and made NT$7.40 billion ($246 million) profit.

Revenues in April and June were very poor

Analysts had hoped to see a stronger performance from HTC, with profits in the $70-million range, especially after the company said it had sold around 5 million HTC Ones in just 50 days. Its performance in May, the first full month of wide availability for the HTC One, was also very positive, down just 3.35 percent year-over-year and up massively from the previous month. But in June, with the launch hype dying down and the wide availability of Samsung's Galaxy S4, the company's revenue streams took a heavy hit, down roughly 24 percent from the previous month and 26 percent from June 2012.

"Better" isn't good enough

It's not all bad news for HTC, though. Last quarter, the Taiwanese manufacturer slumped to profits of just $2.8 million, so it's undoubtably done better through the past three months. Throughout its troubling financial times, HTC has always managed to post a profit, even with falling revenues. In the next few months, the company is expected to launch a companion to its flagship smartphone. The "HTC One Mini" is thought to be a mid-range device, similar in specs to the company's Facebook phone, the HTC First, which has reportedly performed disastrously.