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HTC’s profits hit rock bottom in the first quarter of 2013 as it failed to deliver the HTC One on time. Supply constraints caused HTC’s new flagship device to launch in scarce capacity, with there being only enough units to fill original pre-orders placed in the UK and other parts of Europe. That episode gave HTC its lowest profit ever as it raked in a paltry $2.8 million.
HTC enjoyed a long stretch where it was consistently placed on the other side of this convoluted rainbow — the side that had the pot with all the golden coins. For that reason, even though it didn’t lose any money it was still troubling that profits have dropped so sharply. Things look like they are set to improve, though, as financial firm JP Morgan Securities has upgraded HTC’s rating from being an “underweight” to being “neutral,” a move that has more than doubled its price to $11 from $5.35. Revenue is expected to rise more than 50% in Q2 compared to Q1.
JP Morgan’s valuation comes from the fact that HTC is finally beginning to reach optimal performance in manufacturing, with HTC One shipments in April set to exceed 1.2 million. That number is expected to increase to 2 million in May. Compare that to the 300,000 units HTC produced last quarter and you’ll see why things are starting to look up from here. Most North American carriers have been accepting presales for quite some time meaning there’s reason to believe HTC is finally producing enough units to go around to everyone.
The first North American launch is set to take place in just a few days, and regular shipment in markets where the device is already on sale should improve sales drastically. HTC is expected to show financial improvement in Q2 because of it, but there’s still reason to believe HTC won’t reach the same potential it could have if the HTC One were to launch on time. It gave its biggest competitor, Samsung, the chance to show off its 2013 flagship — the Samsung Galaxy S4 — and gave LG time to get the ball rolling on the LG Optimus G and LG Optimus G Pro.
Regardless, HTC’s new strategy for 2013 — a pointed marketing focus that limits the company to just two or three flagships instead of saturating the market — should help keep it from going rock bottom anytime soon. We pray for that it all goes according to plan for the sake of healthy competition. [via Focus Taiwan, thanks Android Creature!]
I do like this device more and more. I’m just wary of Sense. This Sensation is getting mighty long in the tooth and as of late its been more problems then anything -_-. Cant seem to find a rom that plays well on it.
Don’t understand your statement, roms can and do replace sense if that is your desire. I go between roms frequently, some are sense some are aosp.
I meant as in no matter what rom I throw on the Sensation it ALWAYS has some kind of BS issue. Either shoddy data connection or GPS thinks I’m in friggin Bahrain -_-. Random reboots when i turn the volume up or down, constant FC’s. Its maddening. I want to chuck this thing into a blender.
I ROMed my HTC Hero to hell and back because I needed to. My Sensation always seemed to work better with the stock HTC ROM. Not going to bother with a 3rd party ROM with my HTC One unless there’s a super compelling reason to.
I was thinking the same thing. Stock Rooted is usually fine with me.
Yeah, I tried several roms and always reverted to stock until I found HyperNonSense. Stock runs well, but it’s slow by comparison.
I’ve had similar problems trying to get my Sensation onto a later version. The ONLY rom I’ve found that is rock solid and de-sensed is HyperNonSense. He started from a Sense rom and worked backwards by taking things out. The result is a very high-performance rom that looks & feels just like AOSP. It doesn’t suffer from ANY of the problems on the AOSP-based roms, although it is “only” ICS (which I prefer to JB anwyay). I get no reboots, no bluetooth issues, and no wakelocks (hence battery life is great). I’ve yet to find a AOSP rom that doesn’t reduce my battery time by around 50%. The other plus to this rom is that although Sense isn’t running, most of the framework classes are in there, so many HTC Sense apps will work (if you want them).
Welcome to the World of ROMs. The E4GT has the WORST possible GPS ever known to mankind. I always had GPS issues. Now I’m running fine. Hope it stays that way for just a few more months.
Dude thats an old ass phone. Times have changed.
It might be old, but the performance is still on a par with the latest “superphones”. Dual core running up to ~1.8ghz, I run mine at 1.5, and I don’t see any compelling new specs that make an upgrade worthwhile. It’s also the perfect size & shape, large screen that still fits in a pocket, very slim and very light. My only complaint about it is the god-awful external antenna implementation, the contacts need cleaning every few months to keep the reception of the various radios acceptable.
I had a lot of the same problems. I found Viper to be pretty stable though (with the exception of some reboots). That was 5 months ago as I couldn’t resist the stylus.
HTC was so worried and the phone wasn’t even out yet.
Why is HTC referred to as an “OEM”? It’s not an OEM, it’s a manufacturer. It would be an OEM if it produced similar products to the branded versions for about half the price, and even then you wouldn’t independently refer to HTC as “an OEM”, the product would be produced by “the OEM”.
By the strictest definition of the term OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) anyone that uses a part in their product made by anyone else or anyone that makes something that is then re branded and sold by someone else is an OEM. This would make most phone manufacturers OEMs.
There does seem to be a lot of confusion around the term. Still, what’s in a name? That which we call a silicon chip by any other name would smell as sweet?
that is good
Glad to see things are improving. Competition in the market place is needed, besides the HTC One looks spectacular. 4 more days till I pick mine up.