“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.]