Recession, not Apple, is Real Threat to Samsung
Samsung Electronics admitted in its third-quarter forecast Friday that its profit for the period may fall below expectations with slow sales of its flat-screen TVs and computer chips. But a booming smartphone and tablet business still produced a $3.5 billion profit.
Despite the court injunctions against the sale of its smartphones and tablets in several countries, stock analysts say Apple's suits won't make a dent in Samsung's sale of rival mobile device products.
Samsung's tablet PC, the Galaxy S II, is the strongest rival of Apple's iPad, selling 10 million in eight weeks since launch date. More importantly, the company is confident its Galaxy smartphones will beat the iPhone 4S because Apple consumers were an iPhone 5, not an upgraded iPhone 4.
"I previously thought Apple's new iPhone would slow Samsung's handset earnings momentum, but there was no iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4S will not be a burden on Samsung in the fourth quarter," Ahn Seong-ho, an analyst at Hanwha Securities, told Reuters.
"Given Apple's relatively unchanged new iPhone, Samsung will have the opportunity to eat into Apple's market share with its hardware buildup and growing software power until next year," Jang In-Beom of Bookook Securities told the BBC.
Analysts see a different threat to Samsung's profitability in the fourth quarter: slow consumer demand due to the economic slowdown in the U.S. and the debt crisis in Europe.