Taiwan's HTC swings back to profit in Q2

TAIPEI - Taiwan's struggling smartphone maker HTC said it has swung back to profit in the April-June quarter thanks to a boost from sales of a new flagship handset, but analysts cautioned against optimism.

The firm said net profit came in at Tw$2.26 billion (S$93.51 million) in the second quarter, up 80 per cent year on year and much improved from a net loss of Tw$1.88 billion in the previous three months, when sales hit a three-month low. It announced its results late Thursday.

Revenue in April-June almost doubled to Tw$65.06 billion from Tw$33.1 billion in the first quarter, thanks to the March launch of the HTC One M8.

However, income was at the bottom range of a Tw$65 billion-Tw$70 billion forecast and analysts warned HTC had a long way to go before regaining lost ground to rivals Samsung and Apple and low-cost Chinese rivals such as Lenovo and Huawei.

In the 2013 third quarter, HTC swung to its first net loss of US$101 million since listing in 2002, as it fell out of the world's top 10 vendors and has been struggling to increase its foothold in the highly competitive smartphone market.