The Korean manufacturer might be making headlines when it comes to technology, but Samsung‘s quarterly earnings paint a slightly different picture. It saw its operating profits fall slightly by 6 percent to 8.3 trillion won or $7.73 billion, partly blamed to rather unimpressive smartphone sales during the period.
That said, smartphone sales aren’t exactly declining. Based on quarter-on-quarter figures, sales actually rose. However, it was still no match to the heights that were reached during the same quarter last year. This dip in smartphone earnings was blamed on increasing marketing costs, and we know how much money Samsung throws into its spiels and ads. Another reason that smartphones seem to be on unsteady ground is due to the increasing demand in tablets. Samsung has recently outed prosumer-friendly giant tablets to take advantage of that trend, though it remains to be seen how well that new market segment will do.
Samsung’s other businesses didn’t do as well either. It’s panels haven’t exactly been selling well except for those used in tablets, given the rising demand in tablets mentioned above. Tablet panels rose by 10 percent while TV panels sunk by 9. It DRAM and NAND memory chips, used in hardware such as servers and SSDs, are actually doing well but are not as high as the company had expected. Surprisingly, Samsung saw a substantial increase in TV sales, particular those 60 inches and higher. The business went up by 50 percent compared to the previous quarter. TV sets have been on a steady decline and other TV makers haven’t been as lucky as well.
Amusingly, one of the reasons put forth by Samsung for the earnings dip is the cost of one-off special bonus given to employees. On Thursday, Samsung’s shares closed down 2.2 percent worth $204 billion.
VIA: SlashGear
