Taiwan's HTC earnings edge down in Q2

July 6, 2009

HTC Touch

HTC Corp, Taiwan's leading smartphone maker, said Monday its net profit in the second quarter was down almost two percent from a year earlier.

The firm posted 6.49 billion Taiwan dollars (197 million US) net profit in the April-June quarter, down from 6.62 billion dollars a year ago, a drop of 1.96 percent.

However, the figure, which is not audited yet, was up from the 4.88 billion dollars recorded in the first quarter.

"The decline is not significant at all despite global economic woes as we have launched new products to boost demand," a company official said.

"HTC products remain competitive in the market," the official said.

In the first half of this year, HTC's net profit totalled 11.37 billion dollars, compared with 13.56 billion dollars a year earlier.

In May, HTC launched the second generation of touch phones -- HTC Touch Pro2 -- which is operated on the Windows Mobile platform and aimed at users in the global business sector.

Grand Cathay Securities analyst Mars Hsu said HTC's second quarter earnings were largely within market expectations.

Apart from the new product introduction, "the company also benefitted from cheaper component prices, enjoying lower costs," Hsu said.

Hsu said the effect of having a new product is expected to continue into the third quarter.

(c) 2009 AFP