HTC July sales hit five-month low

Taipei, Aug. 4 (CNA) HTC Corp. reported Monday sales of NT$10.6 billion (US$353 million) for July, the lowest in five months and the third-lowest of this year, which the struggling phone vendor said underlines a product transition period.

July sales fell by 51.6 percent from the previous month and dropped by 32.5 percent from a year earlier, the Taoyuan-based company said in a statement.

For the first seven months of 2014, HTC's consolidated revenue totaled NT$108.8 billion, down 15.8 percent from the same period of last year.

The company forecast July 31 that its revenue in the Ｊuly-September quarter will decline by 27-35 percent sequentially to within a range of NT$42 billion-NT$47 billion, citing an early delivery of products to distributors in the second quarter and a product transition period in the third quarter.

Foreign brokerage firms remain pessimistic about HTC's ability to turn its waning fortunes around, because of increasing competition from Chinese low-cost Android phone makers and Apple Inc.'s new larger iPhones, which are expected to be launched next month.

(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM/J

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