HTC's November revenue falls 20%, but 2011 total jumps 79%
Changing fortunes for Taiwanese giant
The fact HTC has spent the last couple of months talking up its prospects in 2012 rather than projecting a strong final quarter in 2011 is evidence enough the firm's fortunes were likely to slip in the latter months of the year.
Indeed, according to HTC's latest financial update – an unaudited consolidated revenue report covering both November and 2011 to-date – revenues fell to 30.9 billion TWD last month, equal to around $1 billion.
That's down 19.6 percent from the same period in 2010, when HTC drew in 38.5 billion TWD ($1.3 billion) during what proved to be an impressive year for the firm.
Story of the yearImpressive, but it's a year that 2011 is set to surpass, even with November's revenue drop taken into account.
To date, HTC has accumulated 439 billion TWD from January through November – around $14.6 billion - up almost 79 percent on the same period in 2010, when HTC revenue hit 246 billion TWD, or $8.1 billion).
Nonetheless, November's drop will only add to claims HTC is being squeezed out of the smartphone market by a Samsung which is ever-strong on Android and an Apple boosted by the launch of iPhone 4S.
That's a claim HTC CFO Winston Yung dismissed back in November.
"I don't think it's so serious," he said, in response to HTC's decision to cut revenue projections in Q4 2011 to no growth.
"We will focus on the product next year, better and more competitive. Other than new LTE phones for the US market, we have phones for the global market. We will launch some worldwide flagship products. We're confident in them."
[source: HTC (PDF)]