HTC talks itself up after sales slump forecast

TAIWANESE PHONE MAKER HTC has announced that it plans to launch several more handsets early next year, despite having forecasted a sales slump last week.

According to Reuters, the company said it would stick to its strategy after cutting its revenue forecast for the fourth quarter to no growth. This was in contrast to previous forecasts of double-digit growth rates from the smartphone maker.

HTC said that it is not another Nokia, and that it has some flagship phones nearly ready for launch worldwide.

"I don't think it's so serious," CFO Winston Yung said on Monday. "We have six quarters of improvement, the most conservative guidance is 45 million units of shipments this year, a lot higher than 25 million last year."

He continued, "We will focus on the product next year, better and more competitive. Other than new LTE phones for the US market, we also have phones for the global market. We will launch some worldwide flagship products. We're confident in them."

The firm also faces some legal challenges. On Friday it emerged that Ipcom, a German patent company wants to halt the sales of all HTC smartphones in the country after HTC withdrew an appeal against the ruling.

HTC was planning to appeal the decision banning the sale of its 3G devices in Germany, adding to a growing list of banned mobile products in the country. However, at the last minute it backed down from its appeal, suggesting that it was not confident of the result it would receive. µ