Samsung and HTC, both seen as premiere Android handset makers, are set to have two totally different Q3 2013 financial results. Samsung says they’re expecting to have a record profit of around $9.4 billion, while HTC’s unaudited results show a loss of $101 million. To give you an idea of just how big Samsung is, an article from Bloomberg earlier this month valued HTC at just $3.8 billion. The entire company. In other words, Samsung could buy HTC with less than half the cash they made between July and September.
But Stefan, you might be thinking, doesn’t Samsung’s numbers include things like televisions, computers, and other consumer electronics? You’re right, they do, but that’s not the company’s fault that they’re in so many different product categories.
Why is HTC in such bad shape? According to Reuters, all the issues stem from Peter Chou, who can’t seem to plan HTC’s product portfolio more than 100 days in advance. His top designers were also caught with suitcases of money in their cars, money that they’ve been given to leave and start a competing handset maker in China.
Can HTC turn things around? History says no. Once you experience your first loss, that’s it, it’s over. It happened to Nokia, it happened to BlackBerry, and now, ironically, it’s going to happen to the company that made the very first Android headset, the T-Mobile G1.