Smartphone maker HTC posts 58 percent profit drop

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's HTC Corp. has reported its third consecutive drop in quarterly profit as competition in the smartphone market intensifies.

HTC said Friday that profit dropped 58 percent to 7.4 billion New Taiwan dollars ($248 million) from revenue of NT$91 billion in the three months through June.

It reported a 70 percent drop in the first quarter and a 26 percent drop in the final quarter last year.

HTC has grown on the strength of the design of its handsets, based on Google's Android operating system.

But its sales have fallen sharply in a global market increasingly dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.