There was some good news for HTC earlier this week when it announced its unaudited Q2 FY2014 financial results. The company posted a small profit of NT2.26 billion (about CA$80 million) on revenues of NT65.06 billion (about CA$2.32 billion). While sales compared to the same quarter last year are down, profits were up more than 80% year-over-year.
HTC’s return to profitability is tied to sales of the HTC One (M8), a strong follow-up to the HTC One, one of the best smartphones of 2013, as well as the cost-cutting measures that the company put in place as sales have slid. HTC has also hired celebrities Robert Downey Jr. and Gary Oldman to help with marketing and refocused attention on lower-tier smartphones (such as the latest entries in its Desire line).
Staying profitable will be HTC’s next challenge. With competitors set to introduce a raft of new devices for the second half of the year which includes the crucial holiday season, HTC may follow suit and launch new devices as well. Among them could be the HTC M8 Plus.
The HTC M8 Plus (and HTC M8 Advance variant) are expected to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, a “2K display with highest pixel count to date” (WQHD likely), 3GB of RAM and a single 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization. It will retain the metal body of the HTC One (M8) but add dust and water resistance (certification level unspecified at this point) while the HTC M8 Advance will sport a plastic body.
It’s good to see HTC managing to hang on and show early signs of a turnaround but it is still too early to tell whether it’s the real thing.
Source : HTC