HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, yesterday posted a record profit for the third quarter, which grew 68 percent from a year earlier on strong shipments of its smartphones.
HTC’s profit was NT$18.64 billion (US$608.55 million), or NT$22.03 per share, for the third quarter, up from NT$11.1 billion, or NT$13.61 a share, in the same period of last year, according to a company statement.
REVENUE JUMP
The company posted NT$135.82 billion in revenue for the third quarter, a jump of 79.07 percent from last year and 9.12 percent higher than the second quarter.
However, third-quarter revenue fell slightly short of the company’s projection of NT$137 billion, which was forecast in July.
AGGRESSION
HTC has aggressively embarked on new phone launches and was expected to unveil two new models — the Runnymede and the Vigor — in London last night following the launch of two new smartphones last month that use Microsoft Corp’s latest Windows platform, Mango.
PATENT WARS
The company is embroiled in patent wars with Apple Inc, which unveiled its latest iPhone, the iPhone 4S, on Wednesday, but which failed to dazzle. Apple has filed several patent lawsuits against HTC in the US over the last two years.
HTC shares rose 1.6 percent to NT$687 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday before the earnings announcement.
The stock has declined 20 percent this year compared with the 21 percent slide of the benchmark TAIEX, stock exchange data showed.
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