The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone
An ailing display unit and weakened demand for PCs and TVs sank Samsung Electronics’s third-quarter net profit by 23pc from a year earlier, the company reported.
The world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, said its net profit for the three months ended 30 September fell to KRW3.442trn (US$3.1bn) from KRW4.455trn a year earlier. In the second quarter, Samsung reported a net profit of KRW3.506trn.
Samsung’s weaker third-quarter net profit points to the global economic slowdown’s effect on the flat-panel industry and manufacturers who have also been affected by weakened consumer demand for the products.
The company’s telecom sector preformed well during the quarter, however, with strong sales of the Galaxy S smartphone. Samsung shipped more than 20m of the devices in the third quarter, a Samsung official told The Wall Street Journal.
Samsung’s third-quarter operating profit was KRW4.252trn down 12.6pc from the KRW4.864trn a year earlier, while sales were KRW41.273trn, up 2.6pc from KRW40.229trn a year earlier. Samsung had forecast a consolidated operating profit of between KRW4.0trn and KRW4.4trn on sales of between KRW40trn and KRW42trn.
