HTC reports 42% plunge in quarterly revenue, despite Robert Downey Jr hopes

Smartphone maker HTC has reported a plunge in revenues during the fourth quarter of 2013, despite hopes an ad campaign with Robert Downey Jr would boost sales for its HTC One Max smartphone.

The Taiwanese company reported revenues of NT$42.89 billion ($A1.5 billion) for the quarter, with sales down a remarkable 42.46% year-on-year.

The company also reported an unaudited operating loss of NT$1.56 billion, with a net profit after tax of NT$0.31 billion.

The net profit was boosted by the sale of the company’s remaining stake in Beats Electronics.

According toZDNet, the company had hoped that a marketing campaign featuring the Hollywood actor and the release of its flagship One Max smartphone would help boost sales.

In October, reports surfaced the Android smartphone maker had halted one of its four production lines amid a cashflow crisis.

The closed production line accounts for around one-fifth of the company’s total manufacturing capacity, representing a million devices per month out of its total production capacity of 4.5 million devices per month.

At the time, HTC denied it had plans to permanently shut down the factory or outsource production.