HTC's Profit Down 91.5% in Q1 2013; Samsung's Up By 53%

News
By Tarun Iyer
published

Q1 2013's financial figures brings more joy for Samsung and even more woe for HTC.

Not too long ago, HTC and Samsung could reasonably be considered to be Android's two heavyweights. Q1 2013's financial figures have made it obvious just how large the gap has become since then. While HTC's profits fell to just $2.85 million, a 91.5 percent drop from Q1 2012, Samsung estimates its operating profit to be $7.7 billion, a 53 percent increase from Q1 2012.

Though both companies will be releasing their respective flagship smartphones in April 2013, HTC has delayed the release of the One due to component shortages that have mostly been attributed to its "revolutionary new camera," a feature that Fudzilla remarked as being "apparently so revolutionary that it can't be built."

Fudzilla further commented that it seemed too late for HTC to rethink its marketing strategy and that the company "makes some brilliant phones, but it just can’t get its message across. Even if it gets its act together and boost marketing, it will never be able to match Samsung’s runaway marketing budget."

Samsung, on the other hand, is expected to see operating profits reach a new record high in Q2 2013. Because of its status as the world's largest supplier of memory chips and flat-panel TVs, Samsung doesn't foresee any major component shortages for the Galaxy S IV.

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Tarun Iyer
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TheBigTroll
    the new upcoming products espeically the HTC One should bring things around. id say its a much better option than the galaxy s4
    Reply
  • edogawa
    91.5%...gasp that's bad, my phone is from HTC.
    Reply
  • sacre
    1 product ruined it for me with HTC.

    Had an "HTC Touch" back in the day, it was slow, crappy, couldn't play games, tiny screen, the touchscreen wore out, it didn't work in the cold. It was just a piece of shit. On top of that it had a chip that was capable of higher resolutions and better framerates, but through software they limited the chip so they could release another version with the chip unlocked. There was a petition to unlock the chip in the Touch but it never happened.

    Ever since then I never went to HTC. Their phones may be good today, but this just goes to show that if you F up one product, you'll lose customers.
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    Nice to paint part of the picture... HTC's earnings per share in Q1 2013 are expected to be around $.50 on $54bn in sales and they are expected to be 9 times higher in q2 2013, with $4.41 per share earnings on $71.5 bn. The spin you are putting on this makes no sense, but then again % change in profit doesn't mean much if you don't have capital spending and sales figures included.

    These are TW$ figures not US$ by the way.
    Reply
  • ikyung
    $2.85 million vs... $7.7 BILLION?

    I agree that HTC makes incredibly beautiful phones with the right price tag, but they don't know how to run a business. I guarantee once the HTC One hits the market, HTC won't be able to keep up with supply/demand. The aluminium body and shortage of components will definitely hinder them from printing out large volumes. Majority of consumers won't wait months in line from all the back orders and will go buy an Apple, S4, or the new Sony phone instead which will result in HTC losing thousands if not millions of potential customers.
    Reply
  • dormantreign
    I'm not one for numbers...but that seems really bad.
    Reply
  • STravis
    sacre1 product ruined it for me with HTC.Had an "HTC Touch" back in the day, it was slow, crappy, couldn't play games, tiny screen, the touchscreen wore out, it didn't work in the cold. It was just a piece of shit. On top of that it had a chip that was capable of higher resolutions and better framerates, but through software they limited the chip so they could release another version with the chip unlocked. There was a petition to unlock the chip in the Touch but it never happened.Ever since then I never went to HTC. Their phones may be good today, but this just goes to show that if you F up one product, you'll lose customers.
    Same boat - but I had the HTC hero. Biggest POS phone I ever owned. They lost me as a customer for ever.
    Reply
  • vmem
    This is starting to feel like how Intel and AMD saw eye to eye at one point, and well... look at AMD now lol (not to say AMD don't have a few nice products or isn't a capable company, really, just like HTC)
    Reply
  • sonofliberty08
    to play the business game like that u will need full support from your government for resource, the koreans giant corporation are all supported by their government, and most of them play tricks to success in the games
    Reply
  • CKKwan
    This is how Samsung run their campaign to kill HTC

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3dR5Khcf9xg
    Reply