Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp (宏達電), which has entered the virtual reality (VR) business, has benefited from enthusiasm over the metaverse concept to post a more than 20 percent month-on-month increase in sales. HTC said in a statement on Thursday that it posted NT$576 million (US$20.8 million) in consolidated sales last month, up 24.4 percent from a month earlier, the second consecutive month-on-month increase on the back of increased shipments of its latest VR gadget, the portable Vive Flow. Analysts consider the Vive Flow to be HTC’s attempt to embrace the so-called “metaverse,” a concept that has been talked up by Meta