HTC has been enduring a pretty bumpy road as of late, and while we may now be in a new year, nothing changed for the Taiwanese firm in the first few months of 2014.
HTC today announced its Q1 2014 earnings, revealing a net loss of NT$1.88 billion ($62.1 million USD). Last quarter saw HTC finish with a small profit, but that was only because it made some cash selling off the remainder of its stock in Beats Electronics. Revenue for Q1 2014 dropped 22.6 percent from the previous quarter, finishing the three-month period at NT$33.12 billion ($1.095 billion USD).
Looking ahead, HTC is hoping that its new One (M8) can help it to turn things around. It says that it expects to return to profit in the second quarter of 2014 thanks to its new flagship smartphone, which launched late last month.
Despite the fact that the original HTC One (M7) received quite a bit of critical praise over the past year, HTC has been unable to translate that into commercial success. The company also endured component shortages and patent suits that made for a rather rough 2013. And while the new HTC One (M8) looks to be better than the One (M7) in nearly every way, it’s tough to say whether it’ll help HTC regain some of its former glory. The fact that it hit store shelves ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 certainly helps, but now HTC needs an effective advertising onslaught to make consumers aware of its new device.
Do you think that the One (M8) will help HTC earn a profit and begin to right itself in the coming months?
