HTC announced uninspiring results for April 2015, seeing its first year-on-year drop this year, as the company rolls out its latest flagship, One M9.

Sales for the month were TWD13.54 billion ($440.97 million), down 38.66 per cent over the same period in 2014. And with the company having recently announced new devices, it is perhaps concerning that sales declined sequentially, down 32.37 per cent from March 2015.

Taipei Times said that an unnamed analyst with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting had blamed “poor M9 demand”.

This was attributed to HTC “underestimating” heat issues related to its use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processors, which has “resulted in poor reviews and concern for carriers”.

In the face of competition from new devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy S6, this has led to price cuts to stimulate demand, according to a KGI Bank analyst cited in the same report.

With a weak start to the quarter, it will be challenging for HTC to meet its target of sequential growth throughout the year.

In a recent conference call, Chialin Chang, the company’s CFO, said that the company is looking to run a “leaner channel” with its current flagship portfolio, rather than pumping the channel full early-on.

In addition, the company has also unveiled a variant of One M9, One M9+, for some markets, with the executive acknowledging some uncertainty as to how this would play out.

Engadget reported that HTC is also readying a lower-tier version of One M9+ with a plastic body, rather than the premium metal case of the announced device.

While HTC’s existing naming convention would seem to make this One E9+, it has been referred to as One M9e instead.

HTC’s Chinese website already lists a separate device as One E9+, which actually has a different specification, with part plastic, part metal body, and 5.5-inch QHD screen.