Samsung Electronics sees profit fall 8% in the second quarter

The company’s consumer electronics business, which posted an operating loss of 140 billion won in the first quarter of 2015, returned to the black with an operating profit of 210 billion won in the April-June period.

Samsung said those issues have since been resolved.

But sales of the flagship models fell short, dealing a blow to the 47-year-old apparent successor who has not proven that he can revive Samsung’s fortunes. A robust performance at its semiconductor department helped narrow the overall profit decline.

Samsung shares fell almost 3 percent after earnings announcement.

At the beginning of July, Samsung revealed that it was expecting some deeply underwhelming second quarter results, and so it has proved.

This marks its seventh quarterly decline in a row as the company’s smartphone unit struggles to keep up with competitors like Xiaomi.

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.

In response, Samsung has pared down its diverse smartphone offerings, and has said it plans to lower the prices going forward for its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge phones. Samsung intends to remedy this with its new Galaxy Tab A series and another “new product scheduled for later this year”.

An average forecast from a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S survey of 48 analysts compiled prior to Thursday’s results tips this year’s profit at 27.3 trillion won though several have lowered their expectations in recent months. In a bid to recover its share of the large-screen or phablet market in the latter half of the year, Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge-plus on August 13th in New York. Apple’s comeback in to the market with popular iPhone 6 and 6 Plus along… Operating profit and sales are estimated at 6.9 trillion won and 49.5 trillion won, respectively.

Although its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have been praised by reviewers and users alike, the phones haven’t led to the big smartphone turnaround that analysts were looking for.