HTC said that the first quarter of 2012 will continue to be tough, before it sees “a material increase in revenue” following the launch of its flagship product for this year, the troubled smartphone maker said in a conference call.

The company is expecting revenue in Q1 to be below that of the same period last year, with its operating margin dropping to 1 per cent at best.

So far, little firm information has come from HTC with regard to its new high-end smartphone, which is being referred to as M7.

According to speculation, it will have a 4.7-inch screen, putting it on a par with HTC’s existing One X device, with full HD (1080p) resolution.

It will run Android Jelly Bean, and feature an updated version of HTC’s Sense user interface.

Other commonly mooted specifications include a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.

Perhaps the most interesting feature will be the 13 megapixel integrated camera.

According to reports, this will include “ultrapixel” technology to integrate three 4.3 megapixel sensors, which will capture each shot three times and overlay the results to deliver higher-quality images.

This is a similar (but not identical) approach to that available with Nokia’s Symbian OS-powered 808 PureView device, which includes 41 megapixel sensor.

Indeed, there have been reports that Nokia is set to bring this technology to its high-end Windows Phone devices imminently.

The HTC M7 is likely to be announced at events in the UK and the US on 19 February, as the company looks to avoid competing with other high-profile launches taking place at the following week’s Mobile World Congress.

Availability is anticipated for early March 2013.