Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp said on Friday it earned T$640 million ($21 million) in unaudited net profit during its third quarter, as cost reductions helped pull the smartphone maker back into the black after a bleak 2013.

This year's July-September profit easily beat a T$216.23 million mean estimate of 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

HTC said during its last quarterly earnings briefing that improved efficiency in its sales and marketing operations would help the company maintain profitability in July-September.