HTC Q4 Results Decidedly Gloomy Yet They Still Eked Out a Profit (Lowest Since 2004)

[dgstorm]

It looks like the HTC may have truly hit rock bottom. Their quarter 4 results are out and their profits are the lowest they have had since 2004 with just $34 Million. This was a 91% drop year-on-year drop. Here's a quote with further details,

HTC said unaudited Q4 net income was $1 billion Taiwanese dollars ($34 million) — which Reuters notes is a 91 per cent year-on-year drop. Or the lowest quarterly net-income since 2004, according to Bloomberg. For comparison, HTC posted an $11.02 billion Taiwanese dollars profit in the same period a year earlier, and $3.9 billion Taiwanese dollars in the previous quarter.

HTC’s Q4 revenue dropped 41 per cent to $60 billion Taiwanese dollars, in line with its expectations of the quarter from October, and similar to the $60.5 billion Taiwanese dollars average of 23 analyst estimates noted by Bloomberg.

Earlier this week, HTC CEO Peter Chou told the Wall Street Journal that the company expects 2013 to be easier — and blamed marketing shortcomings and fierce competition for a rough 2012. “Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front,” he said.

In a bid to correct its marketing shortcomings, HTC previously announced a new Chief Marketing Officer, Benjamin Ho, would be taking over this month — replacing the now former CMO John Wang.

Despite these dismal looking results, this could perhaps actually be good news for the company depending on how you want to look at things. First, the fact that they still made profit is obviously cause for hope. Second, the fact that they matched up with expectations and basically stayed even with their previous quarter is a great sign as well. Overall, it's likely the worst is behind them, and they have a chance to climb back to a competitive status again.

Many of us are rooting for you HTC!

Source: TechCrunch