Samsung revealed its preliminary earnings guidance that it is expecting 37% decrease in profits for the Q4, 2014. The company stated that operating profit for the October-December period was estimated at 5.2 trillion won (USD 4.7 billion), down 37.4 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2013.
Samsung says that it expects sales for the fourth quarter of 2014 to come in at around 52 trillion won that translates to $47.3 billion. That is a decrease of roughly 12 percent, year-over-year. The company saw its net profit decline sharply by 20 and 50 per cent in the second and third quarters of 2014 respectively. Samsung which is a leader in the Android smartphone market is facing tough competition from Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei and Lenovo especially in the mid and lower smartphone segment.
The South Korean giant’s flagship devices like the Galaxy S5 have failed to pick up and the recent ones like Note 4 are striving hard to fight out Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Samsung’s recent forecast signals the fifth consecutive quarter of decline in operating profit.