Apparently, bad news abounds in the battle for smartphone buyers’ hearts and wallets for anyone who isn’t Samsung or Apple. HTC’s fall from its apparent position of privilege has been swift and painful.

Its efforts to consolidate product lines notwithstanding, the Taiwanese smartphone maker announced that it earned $247 million in profit for the second quarter, a substantial decline of nearly 60% from its $584.3 million worth of profit in the same period last year. HTC’s revenues also dropped by more than 25% to $3.04 billion in the second quarter.

Interestingly, HTC was quiet on its total number of shipments in that period. Last year, it claimed to have shipped out 12 million smartphones in the second quarter, but this year, analyst estimates point to shipments of around 9.8 million smartphones.

HTC’s One X was a potentially exciting mobile phone that didn’t get the market performance it should have gotten. To a point, the Taiwanese firm’s patent squabbles with Apple – which led to temporary injunctions against the sales of the One X on AT&T as well as the Evo 4G LTE on Sprint – were to blame for HTC’s poor market performance.

However, the intense hype surrounding the unveiling and release of Samsung’s Galaxy S3 also undoubtedly had something to do with HTC’s troubles. The South Korean firm’s latest flagship handset has so far shipped around 10 million units worldwide in less than three months since it was launched, effectively blocking off HTC from the top-end of the Android smartphone market.

Considering this, plus the expected release of the next-generation iPhone in the near future, HTC could find it difficult to stage a fightback.