Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp. has reported another quarterly net loss in the third quarter but its gross margin continued to improve.
In a statement Tuesday, HTC said it posted a net loss of NT$770 million (US$27.5 million) in the July-September period, higher than the NT$550 million net loss seen a quarter earlier.
Hurt by its struggling smartphone business, HTC has run a net loss every quarter since the second quarter of 2015 except for the first quarter of 2018, when an asset sale helped HTC run a quarterly net profit.
Its loss per share in the third quarter rose for the first time in five quarters to NT$0.94, from NT$0.68 in the second quarter, at a time when it continues to encounter stiff competition in the global smartphone market.
But HTC’s gross margin — the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold — continued to climb in the third quarter to 31.6 percent, from 29.9 percent in the second quarter.
In addition, HTC’s operating loss fell to NT$880 million in the third quarter from NT$1.05 billion in the second quarter, helped by a slightly improved operating margin — the difference between sales, the cost of goods sold and operating expenses — of minus 65.8 percent, compared with minus 77.8 percent in the second quarter.
Analysts said the improving gross margin largely reflected HTC’s efforts to diversify its product mix and develop its virtual reality business to take pressure off its lackluster smartphone sales.
In September alone, HTC posted consolidated sales of NT$601 million, up 64 percent from a year earlier. It was the company’s second highest monthly sales figure for the year, behind only NT$664 million in sales in June.
The increase in September sales came after the company unveiled the HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset.
Still, HTC’s consolidated sales for the third quarter fell by 0.7 percent from a quarter earlier to NT$1.34 billion.
HTC, which launched its first VR headset — the HTC Vive — in 2015, has seen rising demand for its VR gadgets amid a booming stay-at-home economy.
The latest VR gadget from HTC — the Vive Flow — went on sale in Taiwan on Monday. The lightweight, compact immersive glasses, weighing no more than 189 grams, have an expansive 100-degree field of view, 3.2K resolution, a 75 Hz refresh rate, and full 3D spatial audio that can also connect to external Bluetooth earphones, according to HTC.
Analysts have perceived the portable Vive Flow as HTC’s attempt to embrace the so-called “metaverse” concept talked up by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg since July. It refers to a digital world where people can move between devices and communicate in a virtual environment.
Charles Huang (???), general manager for the HTC Vive in the Asia-Pacific region, said recently that the Vive Flow is expected to go on sale in other countries later in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of 2022.
As of the close of trading Monday, HTC shares had soared 95.92 percent since the beginning of September, riding the wave of market enthusiasm for the metaverse concept.
As of 11:03 a.m. Tuesday, the stock was down 5.13 percent at NT$68.40 in Taipei.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel