Windows Phone saving HTC’s bacon after all?

Windows Phone saving HTC’s bacon after all?

January 8, 2013 | By Surur

BGR has an interesting theory regarding HTC’s dire finances and the roll of Windows Phone 8.

While we are seeing some reports blaming HTC’s poor Q4 2012, which saw its lowest profit for 8 years, on the company diverting its attention to two Windows Phone handsets, BGR thinks the two devices may have been responsible for pulling the company out of its slump in December.

They observed that its October was atrocious, with a 61% YoY decline, and this improved in November with a 31% YoY decline in revenue, and that revenue in November actually increased 23% from October to November.

December saw saw further improvement, with sales only dropping 18% YoY, and increasing 1.6% from November – something which is actually very unusual as carriers normally reduce orders in December due to the traditional post-holiday slump.

They write:

December 2012 marked the first time HTC actually increased sales from the previous month. That is why the annualized sales decline rate has now corrected smartly from -61% pace to -18% in  just two months.

So yes, Q4 sucked as a quarter. But the monthly numbers now reflect exceptional improvement during the period. This is most likely due to decent demand for the Windows Phone 8X, HTC’s high-end Windows Phone, and strong European demand for the Windows Phone 8S.

HTC may still be stumbling in the Android market, but its new Windows Phones seem to have stopped its revenue collapse and may actually lead to year-on-year sales growth by February.

Of course HTC did release one Android handset, the HTC J Butterfly and Droid DNA, so we ourselves will not jump to the conclusion BGR did, but it does lend some support to the report that HTC 8X sales were “extremely strong in the US”.

Thanks Arun for the tip, graph via Unwiredview.com