The Taiwanese Smartphone maker HTC announced its net earnings in the third quarter for the FY2012 on Monday and as expected, it wasn't good news; HTC's net profits for the fiscal Q3 have dropped significantly by 79 percent, the lowest fall in figures since 2006. The company earned a net profit of $636.5 million on total revenues of $4.6 billion in Q3 last year, which is massively down by $133.2 million profit on total revenues of $2.4 billion this year. The declining figure shows HTC is struggling as its market shares continue to drop amid the strong competition in the smartphone market. The company was once the pioneer of smartphones running on Android platform and earned a considerable share in the US market.
HTC starts to lose ground to its biggest rivals Apple and Samsung, especially with the success of Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones which dominates the smartphone market. On the other hand, Samsung posted a record profit of $7.3 billion in its quarterly results, with its flagship model Galaxy SIII dominating the consumer market. Apple also launched its much anticipated, fresh new version of its iPhone - the iPhone 5 which helped them take a lead on HTC. The Taiwanese giant is losing its grip amid the competitive mobile world with competitors dominating the market. The company's stock has also dropped by 44 percent since the start of this year.
The scenario was pretty different in 2010, when HTC was regarded as the biggest smartphone maker using Android platform, but everything changed since Samsung took control of the smartphone market in 2011. The company has released some high-end smartphones this year including the HTC's flagship One X which was then considered as one of the best Android-based smartphones in the market, and the One S. The company also announced the revamped version of One X, the all new HTC One X+ with industry's latest Android 4.1 Jell Bean operating system and HTC Sense 4+ last week, to remain intact in the on-going smartphone war.
In an attempt to expand its customer base, HTC also announced its first Windows Phone 8 smartphones last month - the HTC 8X and 8S. But analysts said that the new products were less likely to have a considerable impact on the HTC's declining figures. They further said the market share may go up but the company won't be seeing any significant pick-up in its profits. Despite of some great launches this year, HTC is facing a hard time battling with its rivals Samsung Galaxy SIII which is the industry's bestselling smartphone till now, and Apple's phenomenal iPhone 5.
