Taiwanese technology company HTC has posted its financial results for Q4 2013 indicating a relatively small loss for the quarter but worryingly expect further losses in Q1 of this year.
In its pre-release statement, the company indicated that the tech giant had quarterly revenue of NT$42.9 billion (€1bn) and quarterly net profit of NT$0.31 billion (€7.5m).
However, the biggest indicator of loss was show with the posting of a gross margin of 17.8pc and an operating margin of -3.7pc.
The company has only so far released a brief response from its CEO, Peter Chou, who said they intend to maintain business as usual: ““We will continue to stay focused on making the best smartphone and building a compelling mid-range portfolio. Meanwhile, we are going to communicate better with consumers.”
Further losses expected
Despite the company attempting to change how it works with consumers, they still expect to see further losses in the beginning of this year.
According to their estimations, they expect to post a quarterly revenue of between NT$34 billion (€822m) and NT$36 billion (€870m), an 8pc decline on the previous quarter.
Chou has recently told Reuters that the company will now be focusing most of its business on the budget smartphone market in a bid to get as many handsets sold as possible in developing countries across the world where mobile phone ownership continues to grow.
As its co-founder and Chairperson, Cher Wang, said, the company got distracted by trying to compete with the higher-end of the smartphone market: “The problem with us last year was we only concentrated on our flagship. We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market.”
