SAMSUNG IS HOPING the start of 2015 will mark the beginning of a long-awaited recovery as its slide in profits slows down.
Samsung released its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2015 and while it’s positive – the company expects its profits to be the highest in three quarters – the company will still hope its upcoming smartphones will help drive recovery and boost profits.
Operating profit is expected to reach 5.9 trillion Korean won (€4.9 billion) while sales are expected to be 47 trillion Korean won (€39.7 billion). However, its operating profit was a decline of 30.5% from the same period a year earlier, a figure that has slowed down compared to 37.4% year-on-year in Q4 2014, and 60% in Q3 2014.
The news will come as a boost to Samsung as it prepares to launch its long-awaited smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge, this Friday (19th April).
It also comes after a turbulent year for the company as it coped with a competitive smartphone market. A drop in smartphone sales and increased marketing costs hurt the company, but its profits were cushioned by its sales of memory chips.
It reported its smallest quarterly profit in nearly three years in Q3 2014 while Q4 2014 saw an improvement in performance despite operating profit continuing to fall.
The company has been trying to revitalise its smartphone range because of this. The most noticeable change was switching from a plastic design to metal as well as reducing the number of devices it releases over the year.
On the other hand, the company has been moving into other areas like VR, thanks to its partnership with Oculus Rift, and it’s preparing the final touches for Samsung Pay which will launch in the US later this year.
It has reportedly struck a deal with Apple to help produce A9 chips for the next generation of iPhones and other devices. The company already makes memory and processor chips for Apple and other mobile device makers.
Samsung will release the official report for Q1 2015 at the end of the month.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say