Samsung President: Mobile business will recover
Samsung says that despite dwindling sales, the company's mobile device division will recover and become better than ever before.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, as reported by Reuters, Samsung President D.J. Lee said the company's mobile business will recover quickly due to "its strong fundamentals and technological prowess."
Samsung sales have fallen across the board, and while cost control resulted in improved profit quarter-on-quarter for 1Q 2014, the sale of mobile devices fell by four percent.
In comparison, rival firm Apple is enjoying consistently high sales rates. The iPad and iPhone maker sold 10 million of the company's latest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, in the first weekend of sales, a feat CEO Tim Cook said "exceeded our expectations."
However, all is not lost for Samsung -- Lee said the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone is likely to show better sales than its predecessor due to strong pre-order sales figures; although the executive did not reveal any specific numbers.
However, in related news, PC Advisor reports that the South Korean electronics giant is also planning to exit the laptop and chromebook industry, at least in Europe to begin with. A Samsung spokesman told the publication:
"We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now. This is specific to the region -- and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets.
We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging PC categories."
Samsung has been quiet on the laptop front this year, revealing only the Ativ Book 9 Plus and Lite ranges, with nothing new unveiled at IFA 2014 in Berlin.
If Samsung does go ahead with discontinuing laptop sales in Europe, this will likely mean job cuts amidst the restructuring. However, this could also result in a more streamlined company which focuses better on profitable industries -- such as mobility and smart household appliances.
Entertainment and health are also categories Samsung has shown a keen interest in of late, with developers due to attend the company's second developer conference in San Francisco expected to be encouraged to focus on these categories & expand Samsung's ecosystem around devices such as the Gear S smartwatch.
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