Stellar Reviews Aren't Helping HTC's Bottom Line

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Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, introduces the new HTC One M8 on, March 25, 2014 in New York.

Image: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

By Todd Wasserman2014-04-07 14:44:12 UTC

HTC's One, the company's flagship phone that drew great reviews but failed to become a big hit, sank the company's first-quarter earnings.

The Taiwan-based company's unaudited results, released on Monday, showed a net loss before taxes of $62 million on revenues of $1.1 billion, down from $1.4 billion in the previous quarter. The loss comes after HTC posted its first quarterly loss ever last October. HTC posted a net profit of $10 million in its fourth quarter, which came in below analysts' expectations.

See also: HTC Launches New Flagship Smartphone, the HTC One M8

Released in March 2013, the One was released on a staggered basis due to manufacturing delays. Upon release, many reviewers deemed it the best Android phone on the market. Like the One's predecessor, the One X, the positive reception didn't make up for a lack of marketing support.

HTC put a lot of money behind the One launch, but even some insiders at the company questioned its marketing campaign, which featured A-lister Robert Downey Jr. riffing on possible meanings behind the HTC acronym (which included "hipster troll carwash"). That ad didn't hit until August 2013.

HTC sold 5 million of its One devices in its first month, according to the company. It ended the year with a U.S. market share of 2%, according to Strategy Analytics. Globally, Samsung had 27.2% market share for the year, versus 15.2% for Nokia and 9.2% for Apple.

The first-quarter results, which cover the period ending March 31, 2014, include just one week of sales for the One's successor, the One M8. HTC launched that phone in late March with an ad campaign featuring actor Gary Oldman, who told consumers to research the phone themselves instead of trusting his positive review. Reviews for the M8 have also been good overall.

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Topics: Advertising, Business, Gadgets, HTC, HTC One, HTC One M8, Marketing