Taiwanese smartphone vendor HTC has reported falls in net profit for both Q4 and full-year 2008, but beaten analyst expectations. The company posted a 0.9 percent fall in 2008 net profit to TWD28.7 billion (US$870 million) compared to 2007, against analyst expectations of TWD28.4 billion. Total annual revenues reached TWD152.6 billion, a year-on-year growth rate of 28.7 percent. Meanwhile, fourth-quarter net income fell 18.5 percent to TWD8.14 billion, down from TWD9.99 billion in the year-ago period. The fourth-quarter result was above the average TWD7.78 billion forecast of five analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. HTC attributed the net profit decline to an adjustment for employee bonuses, which accounted for 18 percent of earnings. Revenue in the fourth-quarter rose 21.5 percent to TWD47.38 billion. Analysts said the results bode well for this year. “The better-than-expected fourth-quarter result showed that the margin for the Google phone is decent and not as bad as expected,” Macquarie Research analyst Chialin Lu told Dow Jones Newswires. “This brings hope for 2009.”

HTC is a rising star in the mobile handset market, having been the first to commercially launch a device – the G1 – based on Google’s new Android operating system. HTC said in November that the company expected to ship 1 million Google phones in 2008 and also expected revenue in 2009 to increase by a double-digit percentage. The introduction of a new version of its Google phone, or G2, is likely this quarter. A Phones Review report today speculates that the G2 could be a combination of HTC’s popular Touch HD device and the Android software platform.  According to Gartner’s latest figures, HTC is the world’s fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer with a 4.5 percent market share.