HTC posts quarterly loss as smartphone sales slow

Taiwanese firm makes £40m loss in first quarter of 2014 - £10m worse than analysts had expected

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has posted a loss of T$1.88bn (£40m) in the first quarter of 2014, as its smartphone sales slowed.

The company had made a profit of T$85m (£17m) in the same quarter a year ago, but the firm's market share in the smartphone market has dwindled, placing it further behind leaders Apple and Samsung.

The company's flagship product last year, the HTC One, received positive reviews, but these didn't translate into strong sales.

The loss is £10m more than analysts had expected, but the firm hopes that its latest smartphone upgrade, the HTC One M8, which is to be released in March, will reignite its battle with other smartphone makers.

The company brought in T$33.12bn of revenue, with an operating loss of T$2.05bn.

In February, HTC said that it was relying on mid-tier mobile devices to help return the company to profit in 2014. Its CFO, Chialin Chang, said it was pinning its recovery hopes on a greater range of products.

HTC co-founder and chair Cher Wang said that the company "missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market", possibly referring to the HTC One, which failed to make a dent in the sales of its Android rival, Samsung Galaxy S4.