HTC posts 98% dive in quarterly profit

HTC Corp posted its lowest quarterly profit on record after the delay of its newest flagship phone caused revenue to miss the company's target.

First-quarter net income plunged 98 percent to NT$85 million (US$2.8 million), the sixth straight decline, according to data released by the Taiwan-based company yesterday. The average of 19 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg News was for profit of NT$600 million.

HTC lost early momentum for its HTC One handset in February as a shortage of camera components forced it to delay shipments in key markets by as much as a month. Prospects for revenue to rebound this quarter may be limited as the new device becomes widely available less than a month before Samsung Electronics Co's new Galaxy S4, which goes on sale in the US on April 26.

"These numbers show the production shortage really is that bad, and my sense is that it won't get much better in the second quarter because many of those issues continue," said Dennis Chan, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Co in Taipei. "For smartphones, timing is everything and the delay means they lose that timing."

First-quarter revenue fell 37 percent from a year ago to NT$42.8 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg News showed.

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