HTC saw a year-on-year and sequential improvement in revenue for August, as it recovered from a disappointing start to the third quarter.

Revenue for the period was TWD14.5 billion ($485.2 million), up 10.4 per cent year-on-year and a 37.1 per cent improvement on the prior month.

The August period marked its first year-on-year growth for any month since April 2014.

The August figure was well below June’s TWD21.9 billion but suggests that the disappointing revenue in July, which was down 51.6 per cent sequentially and 32.6 per cent year-on-year, may just have been a blip.

Until July, HTC had been seeing its monthly revenue increase sequentially (apart from a slight dip in May) since March, which was the point at which it unveiled its latest flagship device – One (M8).

The company previously said it was aiming for third quarter revenue of between TWD42 billion and TWD47 billion, meaning it needs to record close to TWD17 billion for September to meet expectations. With revenue in September 2013 of TWD18.2 billion, this isn’t out of the question.

Although there was an improvement for August, the Taiwanese company’s consolidated revenue for the year to the end of August was TWD123.3 billion, 13.4 per cent down on the TWD142.4 billion reported for the same period in 2013.

So far this year HTC has unveiled a new mid-tier smartphone (Desire 816), as well as other One-family products such as One Mini 2 and a pared-down version of the flagship called One (E8).

In August, it unveiled the latest in its Desire family of mid-tier devices, Desire 510 (pictured), which it said offers “super-fast LTE connectivity at an affordable price-point”.

Peter Chou, CEO of the embattled company, said: “The industry has been talking about the 4G effort for so long now that it’s easy to forget that only a small selection of top-end devices are taking advantage of the technology. Owning the latest and greatest technology shouldn’t be reserved for those with the highest budgets.”

According to reports, HTC may be about to announce a Desire-family device with 64-bit processor.

While HTC does not provide any other figures alongside its monthly sales update, the company has previously said it was looking toward a “clean start” in the second half of the year, having remained in the black for the first half.

While HTC’s products are generally well regarded, the company nevertheless faces continued challenges in attracting customers especially to its premium products, where the marketing might of rivals such as Apple and Samsung means it has to shout to be heard.

According to reports in July, the company parted ways with CMO Ben Ho, following the failure of a high-profile marketing campaign to translate to demonstrable results.