In a statement released to the press earlier today, HTC announced that its third-quarter net profit was 3.9bn New Taiwan dollars ($133m), a mammoth 79 per cent decline from the NT$18.64bn recorded last year.

It’s in stark contrast to the position the firm was in just a few years ago. In 2010, HTC was the largest smartphone manufacturer using Google’s Android operating system, but was quickly overtaken by Samsung in 2011, thanks to a portfolio of award-winning devices, which, at the time, included the Galaxy Note and Samsung Galaxy S2.

The recent launch of the second-generation Note and third-generation Galaxy S will only further chip away at the numbers on HTC’s spreadsheets.

Apple, which launched the iPhone 5 in October, is also a strong contender in the smartphone field, and it could well be the case that HTC will record yet more disappointing profits in Q4, the most lucrative time on the smartphone calendar.

Last month, HTC took a bold step and whipped the covers off its new Windows 8-based handsets, the HTC 8X and 8S, a move designed to widen its customer base and, as a result, boost its profits. But with Samsung also reportedly looking to release its own Windows 8 smartphones, HTC may well have face another losing battle.

Via Wall Street Journal