Samsung Annual Revenue Dropped In 2019 Despite Strong Flagship Smartphone Sales

Samsung Electronics yesterday announced its quarterly financial results of the period ended December 31, 2019.

Revenue in the final quarter of 2019 was 59.88 trillion won ($50.54 billion) which represents a 1 percent uptick, while the company’s operating profit fell by 34 percent to 7.1 trillion won ($6.04 billion).

For the whole of 2019, Samsung posted 230.40 trillion won ($194.43 billion) in revenue – down 5.4 percent from a year prior – and 27.77 trillion won ($23.43 billion) in operating profit – down by 53 percent.

Samsung said the main reason for the drop in revenue in the quarter was due to the fall in memory chip prices – one of the company’s most profitable division in the recent past.

Also, the company flagged its poor quarterly performance to the less demand in display panels.

The increasing demand in memory chips used in servers and mobile products, as well as solid sales of its flagship smartphones were flagged as the primary driver that helped cover up for losses posted in the other business arms.

Samsung’s mobile business posted 2.52 trillion won in revenue up from 1.51 trillion won in 2018.

Although, the company’s mobile business posted “significant” improvement year-over-year but fell from the previous quarter. Samsung says the drop from the last quarter is due to the “fading effect from a new flagship product launch.”

The company’s “lineup changes to improve profitability for mass-market models” reportedly paid off citing the Galaxy A Series.

Moving forward, Samsung is betting on the increasing demand for memory chips for data centres as well as 5G adoption to boost its memory business. An increase in demand for OLED displays and high-resolution phone camera sensors is also anticipated.

This year Samsung expects general business improvement but “sees continued uncertainties in the global business environment.”

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