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Taiwan's HTC sees demand from Asia, Europe

Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC said it has high hopes for Asia and Europe, arguing continued growth there was likely to offset lost market shares in the US

Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC said Tuesday it has high hopes for Asia and Europe, arguing continued growth there was likely to offset lost market shares in the US. "Over the past two quarters, a certain part of our market share in the United States was eaten up by the iPhone 4S," HTC chief executive Peter Chou told a quarterly investor conference. The iPhone 4S, the latest smartphone from US technology giant Apple, was released in October last year. But a confident Chou expected the decline of its US market share, which he did not describe in detail, would be compensated by the anticipated growth from Asia and Europe. "We're very optimistic about the outlook for the Asian market while Europe is also expected to see continued growth... That way, it will become more healthy and balanced," he said. Regarding Asia, Chou singled out China as one of its likely growth engines starting from the second quarter. HTC forecast that its revenues in the three months to June will rise to Tw$105.0 billion ($3.6 billion), up from Tw$67.8 billion seen in the first quarter. The company's net profit in the first quarter came in at Tw$4.5 billion, a sharp decline of 69.9 percent from a year ago, due to the transition of its product lines, it said, confirming data it released in early April. HTC in March unveiled a new series of smartphones equipped with powerful cameras that it said would allow users to "retire your digital cameras", as it sought to fight back against rivals Apple and Samsung. The new series called "One" hit the world market this month.