Samsung Ups Handset Sales Guidance

Communications Today, July 23, 2002

While other top handset vendors this month lowered their expectations for industry-wide sales this year, consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung Electronics raised its handsets sales goal from 37 million units to 41 million after reporting its highest quarterly profit. The Korean company said brisk sales of memory chips, mobile phones and televisions more than doubled its second-quarter profit to 1.92 trillion won ($1.65 billion) from 876 billion won ($752 million) a year ago.

Although Samsung sold only 19 million mobile phones in the first half this year, sales for its telecommunication division, which includes mobile phones, rose 20 percent from the April-June period in 2001 to 2.77 trillion won ($2.38 billion). The company's guidance for stronger handset sales in the second half comes after Ericsson [ERICY] and Nokia [NOK] last week lowered the guidance for industry-wide sales after each company reported disappointing mobile phone sales for the quarter.

Overall, Samsung's sales for the quarter rose to 9.94 trillion won ($8.53 billion) from 8.02 trillion won ($6.88 billion) a year ago, led by sales of 3.24 trillion won ($2.78 billion) by its largest unit, its semiconductor division.