Samsung warns of ‘mounting challenges’ in second half

Total operating profit was 6.9 trillion Korean won ($5.9 billion), slightly better than expectations.

Semiconductors, in particular, saw operating profit surge in the second quarter by 83% from a year earlier to 3.4 trillion won.

At a separate board meeting, Samsung also doubled interim dividend to 1,000 won per share.

Operating profit in the mobile division was down 38 percent year-on-year in the second quarter at 2.76 trillion won.

At the beginning of July, Samsung revealed that it was expecting some deeply underwhelming second quarter results, and so it has proved. The news was tough again for Samsung, which has been hit by a string of disappointing earnings reports for some time now as its chief competitor, Apple, continues to rake in huge revenue and profits from its popular iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones. Sales and profits edged up on-quarter in Samsung’s mobile division, but it’s not performing anywhere like its heyday a few years ago.

Samsung did not say how many smartphones it sold during the quarter, but recent numbers from IDC suggest that the firm shifted 73.2 million handsets during the three-month period, giving Samsung a 21.7 percent share of global smartphone sales. However, smartphone shipments were still down compared to the previous quarter, as the S6 could not offset slower sales in the low-end and mid-range markets.

Samsung has about 29% of the smartphone market in the U.S., behind Apple, which holds the lion’s share.

Sales at the semiconductor division, once the main source of income for the company, grew 15 percent to 11.29 trillion won as demand increased despite low seasonality, with memory sales rising 23 percent.

Samsung’s handset business suffered due to the rise of Chinese players rolling out price-competitive models, while sales of the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge remained weak, analysts said.

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Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 (pictured left) and S6 edge (pictured right) were unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, but the latter has reportedly being dogged by production and supply issues since release its release in April.