Samsung “posted second-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates on competition from Chinese makers and gains in the Korean won,” Jungah Lee reports for Bloomberg. “Operating income fell about 24 percent to 7.2 trillion won ($7.1 billion) in the three months ended June, the company said, the third straight quarterly drop.”
“Samsung is counting on demand for fourth-generation devices to revive growth as Apple Inc. lures premium customers and Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) pack features into cheap phones to lure budget buyers,” Lee reports. “Currency moves cut the value of overseas earnings as the South Korean company’s grip on the market for screens larger than 5 inches faces new competition, with Apple said to be preparing bigger iPhones.”
“The operating profit of 7.2 trillion won compares with the 8.1 trillion-won average of 34 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Expectations have been scaled back for Samsung with at least 25 analysts cutting earnings estimates in the last four weeks. The average operating profit estimate has fallen about 13 percent from 9.3 trillion won on May 12,” Lee reports. “Sales were about 52 trillion won in the quarter, the company said today. That compares with the 53.2 trillion-won average of 37 estimates.”
“‘We see some concerns in the second half of the year as Apple is set to launch iPhone 6 device with larger screen size,’ Marcello Ahn, a Seoul-based analyst at Quad Investment Management Co., said by phone today,” Lee reports. “Suppliers to Apple in China will begin mass production of its largest iPhones ever next month, with screens as large as 5.5 inches, according to people familiar with the plans. Any move by Apple, which uses a 4-inch display on its current iPhone 5s, would weaken Samsung’s grip on the market for large screen devices”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps crime doesn’t pay forever?
An iPhone with a larger screen option will hurt Samsung immeasurably more than myriad, unending traipses through the legal morass. – MacDailyNews, May 2, 2014
And, all of Samsung’s phones are cheap, regardless of the price tags they hang upon them.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike Caine” for the heads up.]