HTC’s handsets are struggling against Apple’s iPhone, and also other Android smartphones from companies like Samsung, leading to a 26 percent drop in 4th quarter profits.
Sam Oliver for AppleInsider:
The outlook for the current quarter is even worse, with HTC officials projecting a 36 percent drop, according toApple 2.0. HTC Chief Financial Officer Winston Yung told investors on a conference call Monday that his company is in the midst of a product transition that will hurt sales in the next quarter.
“Our weakness in first-quarter guidance also comes from facing competition in the U.S. from iPhone and Samsung,” Yung said. “LTE handsets also didn’t meet our expectations.”
As well as being one of the first Android smartphone makers, HTC was the first to embrace 4G technology. Apple has steered away from LTE technology in its devices, saying the first generation of 4G chips have poor battery life.
HTCÂ has declined to reveal any specific sales figures for its smartphones, so its unknown how they fared against Apple’s record 37 million iPhone sales during the holiday quarter.
