“Samsung Electronics has suffered a sharp fall in first quarter earnings, hit by weakness in its liquid crystal display business and price competition in tablet computers,” Kelly Olsen reports for The Associated Press.
“The manufacturer of the Galaxy S smartphone and Galaxy Tab tablet said Thursday operating profit for the first three months of 2011 will fall to between 2.7 trillion won and 3.1 trillion won ($2.85 billion) from 4.41 trillion won a year earlier,” Olsen reports. “The company gave no reason for the expected first-quarter results and plans to release details when it announces earnings at the end of this month, according to spokesman Nam Ki-yung.”
Olsen reports, “Lee Min-hee, an analyst at Dongbu Securities, said that weakness in LCDs was the main factor for Samsung’s first quarter profit performance, citing weaker demand from manufacturers of TV sets and laptop computers, the latter a result of consumers switching to tablet devices. He also said that profitability for the company’s Galaxy Tab suffered ‘due to severe price competition’ with Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.’s iPad.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Cue Apple fan’s glee! 5…..4…..3….2…..1…..
Since, you’re first poster, perhaps, the joke’s on you.
I don’t get how Samsung can be hit so hard by the iPad 2. It’s an enormously diverse global company that’s involved in just about everything.
It makes me think that there’s something more fundamentally weak about the company, and Samsung is just blaming the iPad.
So, we could possibly conclude that Samsung could have made more money by reserving more manufacturing capacity for Apple, rather than wasting resources making a “iPad killer”. Furthermore, they could have been getting a head start in applying Apple licensed technology (e.g. AirPlay, AirPrint) as a partner, rather than as a competitor.
Yup, exactly. They are also going to be feeling the hurt soon when they release their Wifi Galaxy Tab for $350.
At that price it’s a good bet they are losing money on every one sold. Guess they plan to make it up in volume….
Sad that they think just because they provide some parts for Apple they can be just as good as Apple.
I know, Samsung makes good TV’s, but when it comes to tablets, you are going to have to work a lot harder than that to surpass Apple
You do realize products sold at a loss will not make a profit by selling more units, right?
“We will make it up in volume” is an old joke, JM.
When you don’t watch the market moves of customers and competitors…
“weakness in LCDs was the main factor for Samsung’s first quarter profit performance, citing weaker demand from manufacturers of TV sets and laptop computers, the latter a result of consumers switching to tablet devices.”
It seems a stretch that 15-20 million iPads sold so far would be the only reason sales of TVs and laptops are down. Given the global economy, most people probably figure the TVs and computers they have now are good enough. The days of Joe consumer buying a bigger plasma screen and a couple new computers every three years are behind us. Certainly people will turn to tablets as a cheaper alternative, but this is another symptom, not the cause.
This is not over. I bet Samsung still has all the Galaxy Tabs listed as inventory at cost. I bet numbers will look a lot a lot worse when they sell them at fire sale prices or scrap them.
And mentioning that “profitability for the company’s Galaxy Tab suffered ‘due to severe price competition’ with Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.’s iPad.’” is stupid. The iPad has not moved prices since introduced. The iPad was a sitting duck ready to be fired at by copycats. That happens when you are not ready to compete.
So Samsung’s greed got the best of them. Not content to stick with their great monitor and flat TV business, they divert a cubic metric buttload of money to develop and produce a tablet that flops, then they have to give it away.
Why do these companies feel that they need to do everything, especially when that includes trying to copy Apple, which no one has been able to do?
I guess it gives the tech commentators a great soundbyte, “XXX Company profits fall (or fail), due to popularity of Apple’s ithing”
My armchair advise to companies, stick to what you do best, don’t go into a new market just because Apple does.
Xoom´s next?
no, no, xoom will be totally different for some reason.
Funny how the iPad has not hurt the sales of Mac laptops. I use both, different tools for different uses.
Only idiots would try tonenter the tablet market now and compete with apple. There ain’t no frigging way.
Samsung wanted the cake as well. But what they ate was a mouthful of humble pie.
Work with Apple. Why supply and compete with them for the same product type. Silly, You lose by being too greedy.
Nice to see some of these companies going back to the drawing board or CAD theae days.
LMAO
So Samsung has not released details yet, and his is basically speculation correct?
Samsung has a large and diverse business portfolio. They even make appliances for gods sake.
Somehow I think there is more to them losing money than only the iPad.
Hell Foxconn lost 281 million in 2010… Shall we blame that on the iPad? haha
Maybe SamDung needs to make a new kickbutt ad. Starring Lihan and Sheen. Seems like a perfect fit for their products. 😉
Sounds smooth to me. Very smooth, Samsung.
Poor diddums