Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/15
By: Jiang Ming-yan and Frances Huang 

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp. posted a net profit in 2018 after it disposed of its smartphone ODM assets to Google in the first quarter of that year to boost its bottom line, according the results released on Friday.

In a statement, HTC said it registered NT$12 billion (US$388 million) in net profit in 2018, compared with a net loss of NT$16.91 billion in 2017, stopping a three-year losing streak. Its earnings per share for 2018 stood at NT$14.72, compared with NT$20.58 in loss per share in the previous year.

The 2018 net profit was achieved even though HTC’s consolidated sales fell to NT$23.74 billion, down 61.78 percent from the previous year, the seventh consecutive year of decline amid escalating competition in the global smartphone market’s high-end and mid-range segments.

While HTC has entered the global virtual reality market by unveiling its first VR headset — the HTC Vice — in 2015 and its follow-up models subsequently, such as the HTC Focus, such efforts have failed to boost its sales and bottom line.    [FULL  STORY]