Things Grow Bleaker for HTC; Earnings Nosedive 79% in Q3 of 2012

[dgstorm]

It seems like poor HTC is having trouble pulling themselves out of this tail-spin they are in. Their new earnings report just came out and they took another huge hit for another quarter. Their earnings dropped 79% in Q3 of this year, and their overall revenue was down as well. Here's a quote with more details,

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer saw its profits decline 79% year-over-year as it reported “its lowest quarterly profit since 2006 as it continued to lose market share to its competitors.” HTC’s revenues in the third quarter of 2012 also fell by 48% year-over-year as the company has been increasingly overshadowed by rival Samsung (005930), which last week reported a record $7.3 billion profit in Q3 2012.

While this is definitely awful news, it's still to early to count HTC out. All it will take is one good hit device to help make them competitive again. There are many of us rooting for that potentiality.

Source: HTCOneForum via BGR

 

[johnomaz]

I hate to say it, but they did it to themselves in some ways. Poor updates from HTC for phones, non support for some older flagship phones (/cough Thunderbolt). They all look the same which to me sucks. HTC Sense UI sucks. Beats audio was a sham. It was just a software EQ though the headphones were decent. Plus they put out WAY too many phones.

 

[zomnomnombie]

I blame Sense.

 

[syndicate0017]

I blame Sense.

Its really a love it or hate it thing. I despise Sense...I find it intrusive and overdone. Some will stand by it and say its beautiful. My girlfriend is one of those people. It might be a small contributing factor to the lack of success, but I doubt its the primary reason.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[nikecar]

I like Sense over Samsungs. i like Sense over Moto's...

 

[SquireSCA]

Sense 4.0 is great actually. I think that it appeals to a lot of people. I don't like the "pure Google" look. I think that having a base Google UI makes even the iPhone look relevant again. It's crude in a lot of ways, even on Jelly Bean. Sense adds polish, and it does have some really nice widgets built in that I find useful.

I run custom ROM's on my devices and on the phone I usually stay with a Sense based one. It's clean, pretty and useful IMHO.

 

[LoudRam]

I blame poor advertising. You saw some ads for the One X and the TB but as for the Rezound, Dinc 4G, One S almost nothing. The majority of phones aren't bought by techies like us that actually do our homework on specs and features. They need to get the word out. What good is it to have a top tier phone if no one knows about it or what it can do... ie Rezound.

And I like Sense as well. I bounce back and forth between that and GL.

 

[N4UPD]

Another thing that hurt them is not being able to use 3rd party wifi hotspot apps such as foxfi unless you used USB Tether.

 

[jseah]

Here are what I feel the mistakes HTC made:

1. They come out with a new flagship top of the line phone, the One X, and they make it an AT&T exclusive. For Verizon, they put out the Incredible LTE, which would be best described as a mid-range device. The last top of the line device they put out on Verizon is the Rezound, which is now 11 months old. A flagship device that doesn't come emblazoned with an Apple logo will obviously not sell as well on AT&T as it would on any other carrier.

2. They put the smallest standard batteries around in their devices. With LTE being a battery hog, the standard batteries in their LTE phones are somewhere around 50% smaller than their competitors. It makes an extended battery a must buy and the customer then has to accept the size compromise.

 

[Kenyon1]

HTC Rezound is an awesome phone and when people ask about it, I say it was the first 720p phone in the US, has beats audio, and still has some kick a specs. But most people just want the hip thing out there. iphone or the s3.

I also blame poor advertising for their current problems

 

[Byakushiki]

HTC Rezound is an awesome phone and when people ask about it, I say it was the first 720p phone in the US, has beats audio, and still has some kick a specs. But most people just want the hip thing out there. iphone or the s3.

I also blame poor advertising for their current problems

Problem is, for many people, Beats Audio is actually a turn-off as some people value true-to-recording quality without an unnecessary bass boost. Besides that...It is somewhat surprising that this happened.

Breakfast beats worrying.

 

[MissionImprobable]

Maybe having two Windows 8 phones will help them out. As others said, poor advertising, poor updates, and poor rollout of top tier devices. Time to make a change.

 

[npro1464]

I hate to say it, but they did it to themselves in some ways. Poor updates from HTC for phones, non support for some older flagship phones (/cough Thunderbolt). They all look the same which to me sucks. HTC Sense UI sucks. Beats audio was a sham. It was just a software EQ though the headphones were decent. Plus they put out WAY too many phones.

We can't blame them for not updating the Thunderbolt to ICS- They packaged it and passed it off to Verizon. Verizon has just seemingly squashed the whole thing, I guess in hopes of getting us schmucks with Thunderbolts to sign new contracts and to get new phones. They are to blame for this terrible phone. They should have pulled the Thunderbolt and released the Rezound as it when they clearly were behind the curve at the time in phones and the phone had a boat load of issues. IMO, with a year left on our contracts, VZ and/or HTC should have offered us Rezounds or Inc LTE's as a consolation for putting up with this piece of crap phone and being guinea pigs for VZ's LTE launch.

Beats was a stupid investment. Even stupider was pulling away from it. Getting Beats headsets with your phone separated HTC from the pack, but they stopped packing them altogether. Now you get Beats software integrated with your phones. Great, I get a more bassy sound.

And Sense has not kept up with the others. It's slow, laggy, an dorky looking now. Samsung and Moto have breezed past HTC with their UI improvements and innovations. The Galaxy SIII is looking like a game changer. Not only is it still the best phone out there, it is available on every carrier and looks exactly the same everywhere you go. With this strategy and a terrific marketing campaign Samsung built themselves a brand, which HTC did the old fashioned route with the One X, giving exclusivity AT&T and putting out a cracked out verison of the One X on Sprint (rebranded as the "HTC EVO 4G LTE", what a terrible name- confusing since there was already an "HTC EVO 4G." The average consumer, I'd venture to guess, would suspect that the two ere the same phone. How they let Sprint talk them into that one I'll never understand). Add in the Note and now the Note II, why would anyone want an HTC device? Also, their marketing is terrible. Has anyone ever seen an ad for the One X or the EVO 4G LTE? I haven't.

The Nexus rumors make a ton of sense (no pun intended). HTC gets a chance to break away from their Sense UI, trusting Google to polish their OS, and they also get to build a semi-phablet phone to compete with the Note II. As much as I hate my Thunderbolt and would never get another HTC device again, I hope HTC turns it around and has better luck going forward. They were a huge part during Android's early years, making the first Android phone (the HTC G1), the first Nexus, and breaking the barrier for phone size when they released the EVO 4G. I just hope they don't get bought out by Microsoft or something, and we have to say good-bye to HTC forever..

 

[kodiak799]

I'd say one of their mistakes (that other Android mfrs are also making) is they tweak a phone and give it a different name so the carrier can promote "exclusive" devices. Problem is, you lose scale on your marketing/advertising and the carriers do not promote phones equally.

Sammie is the only one with the scale and profitability to compete with Apple's advertising. They also leverage their "S" series. Moto and HTC are really asleep at the wheel in that regard.

 

[cybertec69]

By them leaving all their top tier X line smartphones from Verizon and just going with AT&T and Sprint has not helped them one bit, how can you ignore the largest LTE network in the USA. Looks like their panties are still in a bunch from the Rezound flop on Verizon "which was not Verizons fault" but HTC's late introduction of the device. And don't get me started on the Beats flop, what a wasted $300 million. And they should abandon the non removable under powered batteries in their new line of smartphones.