HTC is having a nice winning streak right now. Indeed, the Taiwanese phone maker has revealed that it has posted another profitable quarter, its third in a row. For the quarter that ended in December 31st last year, the company generated a net profit after taxes in the amount of $15.86 million on total revenues of $1.5 billion. Additionally, HTC also announced that year-over-year revenue has increased by 12 percent.
However, HTC is expecting a small decrease in terms of total revenues and gross profit margin in the near future. Before the Taiwanese company started having consecutive profitable quarters, it struggled a bit in trying to compete with Apple and Samsung, who in those years have been releasing their best-selling flagship smartphones.
Posting a third consecutive profitable quarter is definitely a nice turnaround for HTC. If it wants to get back to being one of the leaders, the phone maker may need to find ways to step up its game.
One tactic that might work is diversification. HTC has actually already initiated its diversification strategy in order to be able to attract more customers. For instance, the company's collaboration with Under Armour (announced last month at the CES show in Las Vegas) will bring about a new range of connected health and fitness devices that will serve customers who are athletes, sports nuts, and health buffs. Another example is the launch of the HTC RE camera, bridging the gap between mobile device users and photography enthusiasts.
Apart from HTC's collaboration with Under Armour and its introduction of the HTC RE camera, the Taiwanese tech company is also working on other types of products, specifically wearable devices. As a matter of fact, there are rumors that HTC is developing its own smartwatch line, or possibly, a fitness band offering.
Of course, HTC can always focus instead on introducing new products on less exploited fields, like photography and videos. The HTC RE camera is certainly a right step in that direction. Also, going into the Internet of Things is not such a bad idea.
To be clear, HTC is not as diverse or as equipped with resources as Samsung, who routinely introduces scores of new products year after year. The key then for the Taiwanese company is to adapt a more careful, focused approach to the strategy of diversification.
But in order to do that, HTC will also need to be good at its core business, and that is producing smartphones. After all, if the company can generate good sales out of its next flagship device (which will be debuting on March 1st), it just might have the needed fuel to start diversifying into other things.
