Samsung posts disappointing earnings; revenue, profit down

However, the company will try to maintain sales momentum for its high-end phones by adjusting the price of the S6 and S6 Edge and introducing new premium smartphone models. This was due in large part to a rise in the South Korean won, which made exported products much more expensive in Europe and the U.S. The sharp profit drop in the mobile business came despite its ambitious start to the quarter with the launch of two flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge featuring a curved side display. Sales in the company’s mobile division dropped 7.3 percent from a year ago to $21.73 billion.

Operating profit was at 6.9 trillion won for the quarter, down 4 percent over the year, from 7.19 trillion won in Q2 2014.

Although the anti-merger camp lost the final vote, its muscular campaign marked a watershed moment for shareholder activism in South Korea, where family-run conglomerates, or “chaebol”, like Samsung dominate the economy and are used to running their businesses with minimum investor interference.

Hoping to recover from its insufficient first quarter sales, Samsung relied on the profits it will earn following the release of its flagship handsets the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in April. That compares with the 6 trillion-won average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg and is the fifth straight decline. Samsung, the biggest seller of phones using Google Inc.s Android software, brought forward the release of its next high- end device and is adding cheaper models.

For the Galaxy S6 launch Samsung took a humorous, tongue-in-cheek approach to its marketing and drafted in James Cordon in the UK to push the handset’s design and quality but in an entertaining way.

The American economy reported growth in the second quarter with annual growth rate of 2.3%, which was better than the… 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.

Its semiconductor business was one of the few bright spots, with sales up 15 percent and operating profit up 55 percent. That’s down from 74.9 million units in last year’s second quarter.