Samsung’s mobile division came out flat in Q2 2014, hopes to rebound in second half of the year
Samsung posted their financial results for the second quarter of 2014 today. The entirety of the company brought in 52.35 trillion Korean won, which is a 2% drop from the same quarter a year ago. Profit was 7.19 trillion won, which was a much more alarming drop — down 15% compared to the same quarter a year ago.
Samsung, as you know, is a pretty huge company with their feet dipped into many different areas of technology. Drilling down to the mobile side, we see that the mobile division really didn’t do itself any favors this quarter, an interesting result considering the Samsung Galaxy S5 has been fully seeded into nearly every market you can think of by now.
To be specific, Samsung raked in 27.51 trillion Korean won which is a 12% decrease quarter-over-quarter, and down from 34.96 trillion Korean won the same quarter a year ago. They stayed in the black with a profit of 4.42 trillion Korean won, but that’s 31% less than last quarter.
Samsung’s excuse? Seasonality, mostly. They claim smartphone demand remained flat for the quarter, and that forthcoming 4G LTE deployments in China caused them to miss par on sales of 3G handsets as consumers anticipate the new technology.
The tablet sector was blamed for a good deal of it with Samsung saying there’s weak demand for tablets overall, as well as a lack of interest for consumers to upgrade beyond their first tablet. Being someone who upgrades their smartphone every year I can tell you from experience that I certainly don’t feel compelled to do the same for tablets.
Looking ahead to the second half of the year, Samsung expects smartphone demand to grow thanks to strong seasonality (read: Christmas) and due to the emergence of 4G LTE in China. That said, they aren’t resting on their laurels as they’ve acknowledged that competition in developing markets has stiffened a great deal within the past year. With companies like Motorola releasing capable smartphones like the Moto E and Moto G for under $200 it certainly will take more than the Galaxy brand name to compete. You can check out the full breakdown from Samsung’s report right here.