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Samsung Profits Down, But Phone Sales Are Up

Samsung seems to have checked Nokia as the largest seller of mobile phones worldwide, but the company recorded strong sales of smartphones in the quarter just reported, despite a fall in operating profit.

The South Korean company reported 3.75 trillion won ($ 3.6 billion) operating profit for April-June quarter, narrowly beating analysts' forecasts. That was 18% of 5.01tn won a year ago, as the unit of the company reported a second quarter flat screen business and loss of main chips struggled.

Technology conglomerate joins a host of global companies in warning that weak consumer demand is hurting sales of televisions, flat screens, computers and semiconductors.

"The earnings momentum for Samsung will revive in Q3, but the recovery will not be strong due to weak economies in the U.S. and Europe," said Lee Dong-Jin, a fund manager at KTB Asset Management . "Also, no new applications that can boost demand as the iPhone and iPad did."

Operating profit in its telecommunications division to more than double 1.67tn livestock, 630bn won a year ago, helped by strong sales of a new version of its flagship intelligent S Galaxy, of which 5 million to date have been sold.

Samsung did not provide sales figures for their phones, but said that shipments increased by high single-digit percentage of the units of 70m in the previous quarter. That would put a maximum of about 77 million units behind the Finnish company Nokia struggle, which sold 88.5m handsets in the second quarter.

But analysts still think they could have surpassed both Nokia and Apple in the field of smartphones - Apple has sold just over 20 million iPhones in the same period. Complete figures are expected to analysts in late July.

Samsung is locked in a battle with Apple in the U.S. by the appearance of some of their smart phones and tablets, which Apple says the violations "trade dress" rules to make them look much like its iPhone and iPad.

Falling chip prices are a major concern for the company in South Korea, winning half of their earnings from semiconductors in the second quarter. Display your business reported a second consecutive loss of 210bn won quarterly operations, little has changed from 230bn won loss in the previous quarter.

On Thursday, Sony and Panasonic also warned of weak TV sales, especially in the U.S. and Europe, following Philips and Corning to highlight anemic demand.

Samsung is betting big on its mobile phone business by launching new versions of the tablets and phones, helping to capture market share BlackBerry maker RIM and Nokia.

Shares in Samsung, which reached a record in late January, have lost 12% so far this year.

The company has a market capitalization of $ 134bn (£ 82bn), larger than the combined value of rivals Sony, Nokia, Toshiba, Panasonic and LG Display.

"It will be difficult to dramatically increase revenue in the third quarter demand for memory chips and televisions will remain low," said Song Myung-sup, analyst at HI Investment and Securities. "His loss of business flat screen also report breakeven at best."

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