Fortunes Change Quickly in Mobile

Tim Culpan, reporting for Bloomberg two days ago:

HTC Corp., the largest seller of smartphones in the U.S., cut revenue forecast as much as 23 percent as the global economic crisis and rising competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. dent demand. […]

“Wow, it finally happened, the sales growth streak has come to an end,” said Bonnie Chang, who rates HTC “hold” at Yuanta Securities Co. in Taipei and may amend her recommendation after the forecast cut. “HTC doesn’t have the same sparkle, lacking both the design and marketing of Samsung, while they’ve declined to go into the low-end phones which are popular in China.”

Here’s Paul R. La Monica, writing for CNN Money, just five months ago:

But even Apple hasn’t had that great of year. The stock is up only about 4%. That leads me to the best-performing smartphone maker, one that you may not be as familiar with because it doesn’t trade in the United States: HTC. […]

According to a consensus of analysts that follow HTC’s Taiwan shares, earnings are expected to increase at an average of nearly 30% a year over the next few years. Compare that to Apple, whose profits are expected to grow at a clip of 21% annually.

★ Friday, 25 November 2011