Samsung Electronics will likely see its profit decrease in the April-June period due to the sluggish performance of its flagship smartphone business, analysts said on Monday, a day before the firm is to announce its earnings guidance.
The tech giant was expected to see its operating profit drop below 8 trillion won ($7.9 billion). Some, such as IM Investment and Securities, forecast the figure to be around 7.5 trillion won.
“The worsening performance is mainly due to decreasing consumer loyalty to Samsung’s smartphones, such as the Galaxy S5, which lack features that differentiate the Samsung products from budget Chinese smartphones,” Lee Min-hee, an analyst from IM Securities and Investment, said. Samsung’s profit exceeded 10 trillion won for the first time in the third quarter of 2013, but dropped to 8.3 trillion won in the final quarter and was recorded at 8.4 trillion won for the first quarter of 2014.
(
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
