Over the last several years, Samsung Electronics has been doing very well with its line of Android smartphones and tablets helping to push profits to ever-higher levels. Samsung is now reportedly set to announce its biggest annual income decline since 2011. The earnings reported for its July-September quarter will reportedly be the lowest reported in the last three years.
Part of the blame for the lower profits is that short-term prospects for smartphones are uncertain. Analytics firm Strategy Analytics has said that Samsung has been outclassed by the iPhone in the premium segment and undercut by rivals from China such as Lenovo and Xiaomi for the bottom end customers.
Samsung said in a regulatory filing this week that profit for Q3 is expected to fall 59.7% to 4.1 trillion won, or $3.8 billion. The mean forecast for the quarter was a profit of 5.6 trillion won.
The decline for the quarter also marks the fourth consecutive quarter where earnings have declined on a yearly basis. Samsung does expect things to turn around for the last quarter with strong demand for smartphones and TVs expected in the holiday shopping season.
SOURCE: Reuters