Samsung reckons its profits have slipped by a staggering 37.4 per cent year-on-year in the run up to Christmas 2014.
The South Korean tech giant outed its pre-earnings guidance, revealing a predicted operating profit of 5.2 trillion Korean won – that’s around £3.14 billion in pound sterling.
Actual earnings for last year’s fourth quarter will be posted in two weeks’ time, revealing whether Samsung is on point with its grim prediction.
Unfortunately for Samsung, this is yet another nail in the profits coffin; the firm’s previous third quarter saw profits slide by 60 per cent year-on-year – 73.9 per cent of that was from the mobile division alone.
So where has it all gone wrong? All likelihood points to failings of the mobile division yet again.
Samsung’s TV sales have been doing relatively well, and a report by Reuters suggests analysts believe the firm’s semiconductor business outsold the mobile division once again.
Related: CES 2015: What’s happened at the Las Vegas tech expo so far?
It seems that last year’s flagships – the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy Note Edge, and the Galaxy Alpha – haven’t been enough to repair Samsung’s tumbling revenue.
What’s more, while last year saw strong mid-to-low end device sales for Samsung, this year has seen the firm struggle against cheaply-run manufacturers in China.
Xiaomi, for one, revealed earlier this week that its revenue had more than doubled in 2014, signalling its growing dominance in eastern markets.
This week saw Samsung unveil a host of new tech at CES 2015 over in Las Vegas, including nine new 4K SUHD curved TVs, the Milk VR virtual reality platform, and the Samsung Ativ Book 9, a challenger to the Apple MacBook Air.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
