IC orders placed by HTC with international IC players in the first quarter of 2012 will be over 20% lower than it ordered in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to a slowdown in demand for high-end smartphones globally, according to industry sources.

With the exception of follow-up orders for chips for 200,000-300,000 units of 3D-enabled smartphone models recently, most IC orders for HTC's other product lineups have been declining, the sources indicated.

Since HTC's new 4G and 3G smartphones will not hit the market until after March 2012, the sources expect HTC to see its smartphone shipments to stay flat in the first quarter of the year and its first-quarter revenues to slide 15-20% sequentially.

It also remains to be seen if HTC's previous strategy of focusing on high-end, high-priced smartphones will still continue to prevail in 2012 amid the increasing popularity of low-priced models in the segment, the sources commented.

Source:digitimes