HTC 5th most profitable handset maker after Apple, Nokia, Samsung and RIM

According to Chinese language newspaper Economic Daily News, the leading handset producer in terms of profits in 2010 was Apple. The Cupertino based manufacturer took a 40% slice of the worldwide handset profit. Nokia shipped the most handsets and Samsung posted the highest revenue.

In terms of profits, HTC has settled into fifth place, beating out LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. The Taiwanese handset producer accounted for 5.7% of the worldwide profit in 2010 for handsets and is expected to bring that up to 8% HTC trails Apple, Nokia, Samsung and RIM in profitability.

Of course, it is hard to guess what might happen next year considering that many manufacturers have some really strong models expected to launch. LG has the sizzling hot Optimus 2X, the first handset with a dual-core processor that will launch in Europe next month as we reported. Motorola has a couple of dual-core models itself with the Motorola Olympus for AT&T and the Motorola Etan for Verizon. As we told you, Samsung is expecting to make a major push into Windows Phone 7 devices and HTC has some high spec'd models for launch in 2011 like the HTC Thunderbolt, possibly headed to Verizon next month.

With all of these new models coming out, it would be very hard to make a prediction about which manufacturers are going to produce strong financial numbers in 2011.

source: DigiTimes