Strong
Android sales have enabled smartphone manufacturer HTC
to log another successful quarter, solidifying its standing as a major
contender in the mobile device market.
The
company on July 6 announced profits of $268 million for the second quarter of
2010, according to the Wall Street
Journal. The figure represented HTC's
highest profits since 2007, with its net income jumping 33 percent and its
total revenues increasing by 58.45 percent year over year.
HTC's
results are also cheering news for Google, maker of the Android mobile
operating system that has proven to be the key to rapid growth for HTC.
While
HTC still makes a few handsets running
Microsoft's Windows Mobile, it's Android-based handsets such the Evo 4G, the
Droid Incredible, the Google-branded Nexus One and the T-Mobile-branded MyTouch
3 that have gained new customers for HTC in
the United States and increasingly around the world.
Yuanta
Securities analyst Bonnie Chang told the Journal, "We expect the strong
momentum to continue in the second half of the year, as HTC
will launch another round of new smartphone models in the third quarter."
Chang is forecasting shipments of HTC
handsets to grow from 2009's 12 million to approximately 20 million units in
2010.
Some
have called Apple's
lawsuit against HTC—whose handsets, Apple claims, infringe on several its
iPhone-related patents—an early sign of HTC's growing prominence, or perhaps
more correctly of the growing popularity of Android handsets.
"I
don't think Apple looks at HTC as a nemesis
or anything," Roger Kay, principal analyst for Endpoint Technologies, told
eWEEK. "It's Android, not HTC, that
matters."
Market
research company IDC
has projected that Android will be the No. 2 mobile OS worldwide by 2013,
behind only Symbian, achieving the fastest growth of any mobile operating
system ever. An early 2010 report from AdMob, which looked at smartphone
traffic over the networks, likewise found
Android to be the fastest-growing OS in use, with ad requests increasing
from 2 percent in February 2009 to 24 percent in February 2010.
Kay
added that, like Asian brands Acer and Asustek Computer, HTC
has successfully made the transition from being an ODM (original design
manufacturer), selling products that are branded by the companies that purchase
them, to being an OEM and having its brand name associated with successful
products.
"HTC
has actually done a pretty good job of coming out of the gate as a brand,"
Kay said. "The products look good, they've got a good environment, they've
chosen good fonts for the name—they've hitched their products to Android, which
has paid off."
HTC's
second-quarter figures represent the three months ending March 31. Its Evo 4G
smartphone, which debuted on the Sprint network June 4, is likely to do good
work toward boosting the company's fourth-quarter earnings. In addition to a gorgeous
4.3-inch display, the Evo 4G features cameras on its front and back, can
act as a mobile hot spot for up to eight devices, supports Adobe Flash, is
upgradable to Android 2.2 and is the first smartphone in the United States to
run on both 3G and 4G networks.
Additionally—and
perhaps ever so slightly one-upping Apple, as the white iPhone 4 is still nowhere
to be found—the white version of the Evo
4G, according to Engadget, was
spotted at Best Buy stores July 6, several
days ahead of schedule.
Enterprise Mobility News & Reviews 
