HTC expects to sell more phones this year than last year, a company executive told Reuters. The comments indicate HTC expects to recover from the slump that dragged its fourth quarter results below expectations.
Florian Seiche, head of HTC's European operations, told Reuters HTC is "very confident" in its 2012 sales expectations, despite its warnings of a sluggish first quarter. HTC reported a 26 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit and warned that its first-quarter revenue could fall as much as 36 percent from the fourth quarter.
Seiche said sales of new HTC products in April will boost the company's 2012 shipments.
This week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, HTC unveiled its One-branded lineup of smartphones. The series includes the high-end One X, the super thin One S and the "pocket friendly" One V that HTC said is designed for "broad appeal," language that typically denotes a less expensive product.
AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) has already agreed to sell an LTE-capable One X, while T-Mobile USA said it will sell the One S. According to Phone Scoop, U.S. Cellular, MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) and Sprint Nextel's (NYSE:S) Virgin Mobile will all launch the One V at some point. It's unclear when exactly the devices will go on sale, or what their pricing will be.
HTC is one of a number of suffering handset makers. Sony, Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) and others have reported sluggish results in recent weeks.
According to ABI, HTC was the 10th largest branded handset maker in the world in the fourth quarter, with 2.4 percent of the global market, just behind Motorola. HTC shipped 45.1 million handsets--mostly Android smartphones--in 2011.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
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