Samsung has brought forward the launch date of its new smartphone and tablet models to 13 August in a bid to get a jump on rival Apple, which traditionally unveils new devices in September.
Advertisement
An employee of Samsung Electronics Co. watches a mobile phone near an advertisement of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphone at a Samsung Electronics shop in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 30, 2015.
Samsung will add more middle- and low-end models, change pricing on the S6 and cut spending in the phone division. But the launch has failed to revive the company’s weak sales performance. Operating profit at the division almost halved year-on-year, to KRW 2.76 trillion from KRW 4.42 trillion.
But it did not stop investors from dumping Samsung shares in the Seoul stock market, where the firm’s shares dropped 3.8 per cent to close at 1.21 million won.
“When it comes to competing with the iPhone – Apple has an entire ecosystem around their devices which Samsung just doesn’t have”. But the bigger story perhaps was the fact that the company reported disappointing smartphone sales, including that of its flagship smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. It is believed that the company’s pains are the result of Apple, which launched several larger iPhone models, luring customers away from Samsung.
“In order to drive up the shipment, we will actively respond to the market, which could have a negative impact on our average sales price“, Park Jin-Young, Samsung’s vice president of mobile communications, said during a conference call with analysts.
Samsung said operating profit for its semi-conductor unit surged 80 percent in the second quarter to 3.4 trillion won. Operating profits fell 4 percent in the quarter, while net profits fell 8 percent. The unit got another leg up from its non-memory chip business, thanks to sales of its application processors-the brains of smartphones-to outside customers, and which it used to power its own line of new premium smartphones.
Advertisement
The South Korean giant has seen profits sag since late 2013 due to heightened competition in an increasingly saturated smartphone market.
