As competition in the smartphone market gets tough HTC who recently launched several new models in Australia has said that revenues will fall this year because of delays in product launches, a bigger-than-expected fall in contract orders, and lower-than-expected sales in some markets. It is not known whether Australia is one of those markets.
As competition in the smartphone market gets tough HTC who recently launched several new models in Australia has said that revenues will fall this year because of delays in product launches, a bigger-than-expected fall in contract orders, and lower-than-expected sales in some markets. It is not known whether Australia is one of those markets.
The company said Friday it expects its 2009 revenue to fall by as much as 10% increase. Revenue last year rose 29% to US$4.65 billion.
The shock announcement comes as several phone vendors move into the Google Android market where HTC has spent the last year developing new Smartphone offerings.
Analysts said HTC is facing increasing competition because rivals such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson are moving in on its territory by producing phones based on the Google Android operating system. To date HTC has been the only phone Company to manufacture phones using Android. Prior to this HTC was the world’s biggest maker of phones incorporating the Windows Mobile operating system.
“The outlook has softened for the second half of the year, with June being the turning point for HTC as it faced a lot of competition from Apple,” Yuanta Securities analyst Vincent Chen told the Wall Street Journal.
HTC said it expects its third-quarter revenue to be between NT$34 billion and NT$36 billion, down from NT$37.86 billion in the third quarter last year. The smart phone maker’s second-quarter revenue rose 10.3% from a year earlier to NT$38.20 billion.
The average selling price of HTC’s phones fell this year.
“The tougher competition HTC is facing ahead, together with lower retail prices of Google’s phones, is causing HTC’s average selling price to slide,” Mr. Chen said.
