HTC Earnings Surge on Android Sales

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- HTC, the Taiwanese maker of some of the world's most popular smartphones, saw its first-quarter profit triple on strong sales of its Google(GOOG) Android handsets.

HTC, which passed Nokia(NOK) in market capitalization this week, reported on Friday unaudited quarterly net profit of $14.83 billion ($511 million), which came in above analyst estimates of a profit of $12.99 billion.

The company posted consolidated sales for March of $37 billion, more than double the same period last year.

Helping propel HTC's performance is its support of Android: the Google platform is poised to become the most popular smartphone operating system this year ahead of Research In Motion's(RIMM) and Apple's(AAPL) with 39.5% market share.

HTC has also had a rosy few weeks thanks to its Thunderbolt, the first smartphone to run on Verizon's(VZ) speedy 4G LTE network. The Thunderbolt started selling in mid-March and, according to BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, is outselling the iPhone 4 at some Verizon stores.

HTC said earlier this year that it planned to ship 8.5 million units during the quarter, more than double what it shipped a year before. The company didn't provide information about first-quarter shipments.

HTC has also expanded into the tablet market, unveiling its first two devices earlier this year: the HTC Flyer launched in February at the Mobile World Congress show; the Sprint EVO 3D debuted at CTIA in March.

--Written by Olivia Oran in New York.

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