Samsung’s position at the top of the smartphone market is looking shaky, after the vendor predicted lower profit and sales than investors expected for 2Q13.
The South Korean firm’s share price suffered after it predicted operating profit in the range of 9.3 trillion Won (€6.3 billion) to 9.7 trillion and sales between 56 trillion and 58 trillion. While the figures are up sequentially, they fell short of expectations, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Samsung’s warning appears to validate its concerns over future smartphone sales, made after it recorded an estimated 56% rise in shipments year on year in the first quarter.
Rival HTC also fell short of expectations in 2Q13 on lower than expected sales of its top-tier One smartphone. Net income fell 83% year-on-year to 1.25 billion Taiwan new dollars (€32 million), nearly a billion dollars shy of forecasts of analysts polled by Bloomberg.