HTC’s February 2014 sales figures showed the company is continuing to struggle in the competitive smartphone space, ahead of the anticipated launch of new mass-market and flagship smartphones.

The company reported revenue of TWD7.23 billion ($238.4 million) for the month, down 36.45 per cent year-on-year, and down 25.29 per cent from the previous month. Cumulative sales of TWD16.9 billion are down 37.2 per cent over the same period in 2012.

HTC last week announced its Desire 816 smartphone in order to address its acknowledged weakness in the mass-market. Initially available in China, it has a large (5.5-inch) screen, 1.6GHz quadcore processor, and LTE connectivity.

The company has also hinted its next flagship device will be announced on 25 March.

HTC’s previous flagship, One, picked up the GSMA Global Mobile Award for Best Smartphone last week at Mobile World Congress, and has been well regarded by critics, but this has not translated into sales success for HTC.

With Samsung’s Galaxy S5 set to reach the market in the same timeframe as the new HTC flagship, and a raft of other vendors including Sony having unveiled new high-end devices, times are likely to remain tough for the Taiwanese player.