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Android handsets drive HTC profits

HTC increased its overall profits by 75 percent during 2010 in a year-on-year comparison with 2009, helped in part by the shipment of 9.1 million phones during the final quarter of the year, the company said on Friday.
Written by Ben Woods, Contributor

HTC increased its overall profits by 75 percent during 2010 in a year-on-year comparison with 2009, helped in part by the shipment of 9.1 million phones during the final quarter of the year, the company said on Friday.

The Taiwan-based company — which held its annual financial summary conference call on 21 January — said that took just over half of its annual revenue, NT$141bn (£3.03bn), in the US.

HTC also pointed out that in other markets, such as Europe and Asia, the launch of its Desire and Wildfire handsets — both of which run the Android operating system — successfully boosted its results during the period.

Overall net profit for the year was NT$39.5bn, up 75 percent from the year before which saw NT$22.6bn in profits.

The average handset sales price increased during the fourth quarter, up from $342 in the third quarter to $364. However, over the entire year, the overall handset sales price declined from $352 to $350 in an annual comparison with the previous year.

HTC expects to continue to see strong demand for its existing line-up of handsets, such as the Desire HD and Desire Z, as well as some of its high-speed 4G handsets, some of which — like the HTC Thunderbolt — were revealed during CES 2011 in Las Vegas.

In its outlook the company expects the number of handsets shipped to continue to grow — with a prediction of delivering 8.5 million devices by the end of the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 157 percent — and for demand to stay strong throughout the year.

"We continue to see strong demand from existing products and expect recently launched 4G products to help drive shipment growth in 2011," HTC said in the financial statement. "Demand remains visible and solid; management expects a relatively muted seasonal slowdown than previous years."

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