Samsung suffers from declining smartphone sales, sees bright spot with OLED

Samsung is suffering from disappointing smartphone sales. Partly as a result, the company’s profit fell by almost 40 percent in the past quarter. However, the company is counting on a turnover increase due to the Galaxy S6 and the increasing demand for high-end televisions.

The disappointing smartphone sales caused a sharp drop in profit: Samsung saw this amount to 3.9 billion euros, a decrease of more than 39 percent compared to the first quarter of 2014. Turnover also fell by 12 percent to slightly more than 40 billion euros.

The explanation of its quarterly figures shows that Samsung’s mobile division achieved a profit of 2.33 billion euros in the past quarter. In the first quarter of last year, that division still accounted for a profit of 5.48 billion euros. The turnover of the mobile branch fell by 20 percent to 25.89 trillion won, or 22 billion euros.

According to Samsung, budget phones and smartphones in the middle segment are doing particularly badly and the electronics giant thinks these segments will continue to do poorly for the time being. Tablet sales are also disappointing. The electronics company has therefore pinned its hopes on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, two high-end phones that are only included in the sales figures from the current quarter.

Another bright spot is the increasing sales of high-end televisions. At the end of last year, UHD TVs accounted for 8 percent of sales from the manufacturer’s CE division. In the first quarter of this year, that rose to 11 percent. Samsung also expects to sell more such ‘premium products’ in the rest of the year.

Those premium products are also relevant for Samsung’s panel division, as this division saw more demand for OLED panels last quarter, while demand for LCD panels fell by almost 10 percent compared to the previous quarter. Samsung therefore expects to produce more OLED displays, although the company is more cautious with its predictions.