HTC’s April 2014 sales figures provided some positive news for the struggling smartphone vendor, showing healthy growth following the debut of the company’s latest flagship.

The company reported April revenue of TWD22.08 billion ($733 million), up 12.7 per cent year-on-year, and up 36.1 per cent from the previous sequential period.

However, a weak start to the year means the company is still 11.5 per cent behind where it was in 2013, with revenue of TWD55.2 billion for the first four months of the year.

HTC has seen a smoother rollout for One (M8), its new high-end device, than it did for its predecessor, One. The company has also refreshed its mid-tier portfolio in order to boost competitiveness.

The company said it has shipped more of the new devices than it did the previous flagship over the same period.

“In order to maximise the success of our critically acclaimed HTC One (M8), we have dramatically improved our operational efficiency and supply chain readiness to ensure immediate availability on the launch day,” Peter Chou, CEO, said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, HTC has outsourced production of some of its mobile phones for the first time, working with Compal of Taiwan and Wingtech from China.

The report noted that traditionally HTC has produced devices at its own factories. It did not detail what has happened to its excess capacity in the interim, as the company has seen its sales slide.

The company is using contract manufacturers to assemble low-end devices, rather than its flagship or high-volume smartphones.

HTC is forecasting Q2 (April-June) revenue of TWD65 billion to TWD70 billion. This is significantly above the TWD34 billion to TWD36 billion forecast for Q1 – which the company managed to miss anyway.

It is also anticipated to return a profit for the period.