Four things we learned from Samsung's Q4 earnings call
Samsung on Wednesday posted its fifth consecutive year-over-year decline in quarterly operating profits. And a big reason for that drop was the poor performance of its mobile business.
The South Korean company's IT and mobile communications division recorded a 64 percent drop in fourth-quarter operating profit from the year-ago period, to 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion). Only 37 percent of Samsung's operating profits came from its IT and mobile communications business in the December quarter compared with two-thirds a year earlier.
The drop underscores the continued pressures facing the smartphone king. Samsung has been struggling to compete against Apple in the high-end phone market and against newcomers such as Xiaomi at the low end. Apple in particular has become a bigger threat with its larger-screen devices, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. Simply wanting a bigger display is no longer a reason to buy Samsung's devices, and its smartphones can't reach the low prices of those from Chinese and Indian vendors.
