Just a couple of weeks ago, HTC cut its Q4 2011 revenue forecast by 23 percent, which foreshadowed the first time in six quarters that the company would not be growing. A big reason for that revised forecast has been revealed today with HTC's unaudited revenues for November. The Taiwanese company recorded just under 31 billion Taiwanese dollars ($1.03b) in income during the month, which is a respectable number in itself, but marks a 19.6 percent drop from the November 2010 figure of 38.4 billion ($1.28b). HTC hasn't had to report this kind of year-on-year decrease for a mighty long time, and in fact its October results showed a 36 percent improvement.

November can, therefore, be described as quite the disastrous month for Peter Chou and company. In spite of HTC's protestations about increased global economic uncertainty depressing sales, we're more inclined to believe that the unpleasant financial numbers are the result of HTC's failure to capture consumers' attention and imagination the way it once did. Still, one month's decline shouldn't be interpreted as anything more than what it is, and CEO Peter Chou and CFO Winston Yung have already promised us standout products and unique tablets for 2012.



