Taiwan's HTC reports 79 percent drop in 3Q profit

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012, a man walks past an advertising board of Taiwan's smartphone maker HTC Corp. in Taipei, Taiwan. HTC Corp. is struggling to halt its sliding sales and keep its status as a strong global brand in a market increasingly dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp. reported a 79 percent drop in third quarter profit as intensifying competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. hurt sales.

HTC said Friday its profit totaled 3.9 billion New Taiwan dollars ($99 million) on revenue of NT$70 billion in the three months through September. It was HTC's fourth consecutive fall in quarterly profit.

The company predicts revenue to drop below NT$60 billion in the fourth quarter despite traditional pre-Christmas buying and its introduction of two new models running on Microsoft's Windows 8 software.

HTC became the first maker of smartphones based on Google's Android software in 2008 and its sales surged. It entered a sharp decline in the second half of 2011.