HTC posted another quarter of sharp declines in sales, but narrowed its losses in Q3 with a continued rise in gross margin.

In a statement, the company said it “demonstrated continued commitment to providing premium VR hardware along with the software and services to power the future of Vive VR for consumers and enterprise”, while the Viveport Infinity service continued to build subscriber momentum over the quarter.

The company appointed Yves Maitre, former EVP at Orange, to replace Cher Wang as CEO in September. Wang remains chair, with a focus on future technologies and product trends.

Net loss fell 5.6 per cent from Q3 2018 to TWD2.36 billion ($77.3 million), with revenue dropping 39 per cent to TWD2.45 billion. It didn’t specify revenue by division.

The vendor highlighted its rising gross margin, up 2.6 percentage points sequentially to 22.9 per cent, its seventh consecutive quarterly increase. The margin was 4.7 per cent in Q3 2018.

A month ago, HTC unveiled its second blockchain-based smartphone, the Exodus 1S, an entry-level unit which it claimed is the first capable of running a full bitcoin node.