HTC’s decline continues after the launch of the flagship One (M8), with revenue down 27% YoY

HTC has posted its monthly revenues for May 2014, revealing that the introduction of its new flagship smartphone wasn’t enough to help it stave off a steep decline in comparison to the same period last year.

While the release helped with a brief uptick in sales – April’s revenues were up nearly 13 percent YoY (year-on-year) and more than 36 percent MoM (month-on-month) – it seems that it, nor the subsequent announcement of the HTC One Mini 2, could prevent HTC’s financial performance declining by 27.37 percent YoY in May, a MoM decline of just over 5 percent.

While the One Mini 2 (nor the dual-SIM, plastic version known as the One E8 announced today, and shown above), wasn’t on the market for long enough during May to have any sort of effect on revenues, HTC will be watching its reception closely and pushing hard to increase the sales of its mid-to-high-end devices in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

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Nonetheless, the figures must be a bit disappointing for the company really. Just like the original HTC One, the M8 received generally positive reviews for its performance and design, but as we noted at the time – simply making a larger version of a handset that was well-liked but didn’t seem to sell that well is perhaps not the best recipe for success. In the original One’s case, the launch failed to avoid off several quarters of declining revenues, and ultimately, its first negative result.

With Q2 figures firmly in mind (and on the horizon), the company will now need to hope that its new lower-end devices can perform slightly better once they’ve properly make it to market. However, it won’t be an easy ride; with more manufacturers vying to sell consumers ‘their first smartphone’, competition at the lower end is as fierce as the top.

➤ HTC Investors [Via TechCrunch]