Samsung sees its profit slide 60% year on year

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics has just announced its guidance for Q1 2019 earnings. The company’s first quarter’s operating solid profit has gone down by 60% year on year off revenue, which has also decreased by 14%.

This just goes to show how Samsung is struggling to keep up with falling chip prices. It is worth noticing that Samsung had already issued a warning week saying that its earnings would not meet market expectations.

According to a statement that has been issued by Samsung, the smartphone giant’s total sales are expected to be around 52 trillion won or $45.7 billion and its operating profit will be around 6.2 trillion won or $5.5 billion.

The South Korean technology company has a tradition of announcing these figures at the beginning of each quarter, followed by providing a detailed breakdown a month later. So, we would have to wait for a few weeks before we get that.

It was in this quarter that Samsung launched its flagship smartphones – Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy S10e. Although their launch did help to get up the performance, we should keep in mind that a quarter includes a three-month period, whereas the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphones have been available in the global markets for just a few weeks as of now.

Samsung has said that it expects more smartphone sales this year as compared to 2019 when they were literally flat all year round. It will also be focussing on selling other smartphone components like OLED screens and its chipsets.

In an unrelated piece of news, the company’s Samsung Galaxy S10 5G variant will be going on sale in Korea starting today. We should mention that this is the first ever 5G smartphone by Samsung to hit the shelves. The South Korean technology giant has also said that the introduction of Galaxy S10 5G is a key milestone in the company’s research and development and it comes with “breakthroughs like the world’s first-gigabit speed 5G transmission, the first 5G handover between multiple cells.”

Speaking on Samsung Galaxy S10 5G going on sale, the company’s President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, DJ Koh, “We are at the beginning of a new era where the incredible speed and connectivity of 5G becomes a reality, bringing the world closer to Samsung’s vision of connected living. We are proud of the work we’ve accomplished to bring our first 5G smartphone to market and look forward to bringing it to everyone around the world in the coming year.”