HTC Q2 earnings reports reveal 57.8% profit drop

HTC‘s latest flagship ‘One’ phone range was meant to mark a turnaround in the troubled Taiwanese manufacturer’s fortunes. The handsets, headed by the beautifully-designed quad-core HTC One X,  are undoubtedly the best HTC have released in a long time, and many predicted them to be a huge success.

HTC’s earnings reports for Q2 2012 don’t seem to quite match previous predictions. HTC’s reported net profits for this quarter were $247.7 million, which compared to the $585.7 million earned this time last year, marks a 57.8% drop.

It’s not all bad news for HTC, however, as it improves on the abysmal $149.5 million made in the last quarter. Sadly, this does little to improve HTC’s overall financial pickle.

The weaker-than-expected sales can be attributed to a couple of factors. HTC’s flagship One X phone had customs issues entering the US over a cunningly-timed patent infringement claim by Apple. While the phones eventually entered the country, it gave HTC less of a buffer period to sell their phones before the Samsung Galaxy S3 came out several weeks later. Strong sales of the S3 – which has similar specs to the One X – will have seriously cut into sales of HTC’s flagship device.

[Source: Reuters]