HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday posted a NT$1.83 billion (US$62 million) loss for last quarter, its 9th consecutive quarterly loss, as its expansion into virtual-reality headsets has yet to bear fruit, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
On an annual basis, that was an improvement from the NT$2.22 billion loss it registered in the same period last year, but on a quarterly basis, it widened from a loss of NT$1.68 billion in the first quarter.
Second-quarter revenue was NT$1.34 billion, up 1.02 percent sequentially, but down 52.14 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: Wang Yi-hung, Taipei Times
Gross margin rose to 26.5 percent from 20.3 percent a year earlier, also up from 26.3 percent in the first quarter.
For the first half of this year, HTC posted a net loss of NT$3.5 billion, an improvement from a loss of NT$4.68 billion in the first half of last year. That represented a loss of NT$4.28 per share, better than its loss of NT$5.69 per share in the same period last year.
The company swung back briefly to a profit in the first quarter of 2018 by selling part of its smartphone unit to Alphabet Inc’s Google, resulting in a US$1.1 billion windfall. However, its downward spiral has continued with losing quarters ever since.
HTC has not lacked for innovation, introducing Exodus, the first blockchain smartphone, in 2018. In June, the company unveiled the HTC U20 5G, the first made in Taiwan 5G mobile phone.
The company has also diversified away from its core cellphone business by investing heavily in virtual-reality technology with its Vive range of headsets. However, its VR operations still account for only a small fraction of the company's sales.
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