HTC announced results for the fourth quarter of 2012 which reflect the smartphone maker’s ongoing struggles in the fiercely-competitive market.

The company said that its profit for the period was TWD1 billion, compared with TWD10.9 billion in the same period in 2011, on revenue of TWD60 billion, down from TWD101.4 billion.

According to Bloomberg, this represents HTC’s smallest quarterly profit since 2004 – although it was still ahead of some analyst forecasts.

Last week, Peter Chou, the ailing vendor’s CEO, argued that the worst for the company has “probably passed”, with 2013 expected to be “not too bad” in contrast.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he acknowledged that “we haven’t done enough on the marketing front”, where its competitors had been “too strong and very resourceful”.

HTC is expected to launch a new flagship device, frequently referred to as M7, in the near future, with some speculation it may make an appearance at this week’s 2013 International CES event.

But Reuters suggests that availability may have slipped into March from February, as was initially anticipated, closing the gap before the expected arrival of rivals such as Samsung’s Galaxy S4.

HTC suffered last year when the launch of its One series devices was held up in the US, due to a legal dispute with Apple.

The pair subsequently announced a settlement.

HTC recently launched its J Butterfly series devices in Japan, which several reports said are selling well.