Squeezed by Apple and Samsung, it had a bad quarter and expects the next to be worse
There was a time when HTC and Android were practically synonymous.
The Taiwanese manufacturer built the first commercially available Android phone -- the HTC Dream -- in 2008, and two years later collaborated with Google (GOOG) to build the Nexus One, the flagship of the Android line. Last November, it edged past Samsung, Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) to take the lead in the U.S. market for smartphones.
How the mighty have fallen.
On Monday, HTC reported a 26% drop in fourth quarter profits and warned that revenues could drop 36% this quarter. Despite promises that the company would bounce back on the strength of four new models to be introduced at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress, the stock closed 5% lower in Asian trading.
"Our weakness in first-quarter guidance ... comes from facing competition in the U.S. from iPhone and Samsung," CFO Winston Yung told analysts in a conference call. He declined to provide unit sales numbers.
According to IDC, Samsung is now the No. 1 maker of smartphones in terms of shipments, both in the U.S. and worldwide (see here). But Apple is taking an ever larger share of the profits. In the December quarter, according to Asymco's Horace Dediu, Apple's iPhone captured 75% of worldwide profits in mobile phones -- smart or dumb -- with only an 8.7% market share, leaving precious little on the table for companies like HTC.
HTC was forced to drop one feature. Motorola may have to drop another. More to come.
The 1969 War of Attrition. Photo: Israeli Air Force
Many commentators took at face value HTC's declaration of "an actual victory" after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that it had infringed Apple's (AAPL) patent on software that allowed a user to dial a number embedded in an e-mail simply by clicking on it. That MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 23, 2011 6:58 AM ET
Android's purveyor crossed a line when it sold arms to be used against Apple
Photo: thegreencycler.com
U.S. patent No. 6,473,006, "a method and apparatus for zoomed display of characters entered from a telephone keypad," has a long and tangled history.
It was originally filed, according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, by a company called Phone-com, which assigned it to Openwave, which sold it to Purple Labs, which sold it to Myriad, which sold MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 8, 2011 10:58 AM ET
Visualize four years of mobile phone warfare through Asymco's snake-like bubble charts
iPhone rising. Source: Asymco.com
Horace Dediu, who has been pushing the envelope of data visualization for more than two years, has outdone himself with the interactive chart he posted on his Asymco.com blog Sunday afternoon.
Most conventional graphs display data over just two axes, X and Y. If you want to see how the data in those dimensions change over time, you end up MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 15, 2011 7:10 AM ET
The payoff should Apple prevail in the patent wars: an estimated $30 billion
"Apple ships a much higher value of smartphones than any other player"
In a note to clients issued Thursday, Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi takes a hard look at the flurry of patent lawsuits Apple (AAPL) has launched against the manufacturers of Google (GOOG) Android phones.
All in all, he likes Apple's chances. The two key bullet points (we quote):
We anticipate MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 28, 2011 12:50 PM ET
Steve Jobs claimed that Google "stole" this Apple innovation. Last week, the ITC agreed.
When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address -- e-mail, Web or street -- those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.
Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 16, 2011 7:45 AM ET
If Apple's share of global profits is going up, others' must be going down
Source: Asymco
Last fall, Asymco's Horace Dediu introduced a new way of visualizing the dynamics of the worldwide mobile phone market.
He started with two sets of data -- market share and dollar share in 2007 and 2010 -- for the eight largest vendors in the mobile phone space, from Apple (AAPL), the smallest in 2007, to Nokia MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 26, 2011 7:19 AM ET
If she dared develop an Android device, says an expert tracking the latest patent suits
Samsung Galaxy
"Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple's innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design, in violation of Apple's valuable intellectual property rights."
Strong language for something as dry as a patent and trademark infringement suit, but that's the kind of rhetoric Apple (AAPL) MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 19, 2011 6:26 AM ET
The newly released HTC Thunderbolt is keeping pace with the Verizon iPhone, at least according to Verizon store reps.
4Gs.
Some people have just got to have them. Most people agree that the ThunderBolt isn't the best Android device on the market today, but its ability to get speeds of over 20Mb/second, faster than many wired ISPs, have people snapping them up.
Barron's quotes BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk who ran checks on 150 different MORE
Seth Weintraub - Mar 31, 2011 4:03 PM ET
As part of their CTIA package, NPD group posted some positive numbers for Android and its vendors.
Source: NPD group
Taiwan's HTC overtook Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) to become the leading manufacturer of US smartphones in Q4 2010 according to a report by NPD Group.
HTC's share of the US Market crossed 20% while BlackBerry and Apple slipped to 19%. Motorola(MMI) rounded out the top four at 16%. Samsung, LG, Nokia(NOK), MORE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Intel Corp | 26.73 | -0.43 | -1.58% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
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| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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