HTC definitely did not manage to score an exceptional fourth quarter last year (like Samsung did). The numbers are just in and they disappoint anyone who expected HTC to continue the growth the company got used to by now.
Unaudited net profit in Q4 2011 was T$11.02 billion ($364.26 million), compared to T$14.80 billion in the same period of 2010 (and T$18.68 billion in Q3 2011). Consolidated sales for the last month of 2011 were also down 20.3% to T$26.36 billion, compared to December of 2010.
HTC saw nothing but great numbers and growth until now, when the company seems to face fierce competition from other Android phone makers (especially Samsung) as well as Apple. Users are constantly complaining about the lack of innovation (at least phone-design-wise) and the market seems to react accordingly. If our 2011 “Dear HTC” letters (1)(2) didn’t manage to change anything, maybe the current numbers will.
