TAIWAN'S HTC SAYS PROFIT DOWN 30 PERCENT Taiwan's smartphone maker HTC Corp posted a year-on-year 30 percent fall in first quarter net profit as the global economic meltdown hit sales, the company said Monday. In the January-March period, HTC's net profit fell to 4.89 billion Taiwan dollars (147 million US) from 6.95 billion dollars a year earlier. HTC's earnings per share have almost halved to 6.56 dollars from 12.12 dollars a year ago. The company posted 31.59 billion dollars in revenue in the first quarter, a 3.4 percent drop from the 32.70 billion dollars recorded a year ago. (c) 2009 AFP ___________________ The full version of this story is available online at http://www.physorg.com/news158224538.html