Samsung Elec's mobile margins not out of the woods

Samsung Electronics may have put a floor under its mobile margins, but skeptics say profits will undergo a new test with the latest flagship Galaxy smartphones, among the most costly the South Korean company has ever made.

Samsung's mobile devices division, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of total profit last year, boosted its operating margin to 10.6 percent in January-to-March, according to the company's final quarterly results released on Wednesday. That's the highest in three quarters. Analysts say Samsung's roll-out of new mid-range products with revamped designs in key markets such as India likely boosted sales.

Mobile earnings slumped 42 percent last year due to intense competition in both the top and low-end segments. Samsung was forced to dump unsold inventory at steep discounts, pushing quarterly margins into the single digits for the first time since 2010.

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Samsung On The Edge As Galaxy S6 Edge Screen Problems Anger Buyers

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has been called groundbreaking, beautiful, and an “iPhone 6 killer.” However, the phone can also now add the word “defective” to it’s adjectives. Computerworld explains the problem some Galaxy S6 Edge buyers are having.

Samsung acknowledged late Tuesday a screen rotation problem on a ‘very limited’ number of Galaxy S6 Edge devices, which went on sale April 10. The company said a solution is already available, but didn’t disclose whether it is related to the device’s hardware or software or both.

 The problem started becoming noticeable as soon as the Galaxy S6 Edge went on sale. There were a lot of new S6 Edge buyers claiming that many apps wouldn’t rotate into landscape mode. Perhaps Samsung was hoping by ignoring the problem, the publicity wouldn’t be as bad. However, they finally issued a statement to Computerworld this morning.

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Win a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge courtesy of Opera

Great smartphones need great apps to truly shine, and nowhere is that more visible than when it comes to browsers. The browser you use on your Android phone is your gateway to the web, making it a crucial part of the overall user experience.

One of the highest rated Android browsers out there is Opera Mini, which recently received a big update. Known for its data compression feature that enables users to save data by reducing download sizes, Opera Mini can really give you an edge. But it’s not all just data savings – Opera Mini is fast, fully featured, and user friendly.

That is why android authority have teamed up with the good folks at Opera to give away a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to one lucky winner. The contest runs for one week and there are multiple ways to get your entry tickets into the draw. Good luck everyone!

You can enter the give away here.

Surprise, Samsung Also Has Cost Disadvantage With Exynos And Its Modems

Samsung Electronics has had a tough going lately. They’ve been losing smartphone market share to Apple at the high end and to local heroes at the lower end. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as their chip business, which had been losing lots of money, has been doing well recently. A lot of that had to do with memory and manufacturing Apple’s A8 SoCs in my backyard, Austin, TX. I believe more challenges are ahead, though, as Samsung has created a new set of cost issues with the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, which could impact their smartphone competitiveness in the future. A little background first…

There has been a lot written lately about Samsung’s use of their own Exynos applications processor (AP) and modem in their latest crop of smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 edge.  The news factor here was big, particularly because Samsung Electronics previously used Qualcomm for APs and modems in their hero phones.  While Samsung routinely moves suppliers in and out of products, and in fact, had already used their own APs in other phones, that this was happening in North America at AT&T was viewed as a big deal.  Qualcomm’s CEO directed attention to it as well, when he publicly announced they had lost a very large customer.  I think many thought there would be a big cost savings moving away from Qualcomm for the AP and modem.

Last week, Arik Hesseldahl at Recode penned an article on an IHS teardown study on the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge. It said that Samsung added $34 of cost to the Galaxy S5.  IHS was quoted saying that, “The bottom line is that this phone costs less than an iPhone to buy, but it costs Samsung more to build.” That was a surprise to just about everyone. The S6 edge is a big improvement, but to cost more than the iPhone 6 is astounding.  Within this IHS revelation is that not only is the phone more expensive to make, but so are the home-grown Exynos SoC and modem. One would have thought that would have been a savings, right?

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (White, 32GB)

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TrendForce Reports Q1 Smartphone Shipments: Samsung Solidifies Number 1 Spot

We love studies here at Android Headlines, and a new one from TrendForce is out showing that global smartphone shipments totaled 291.2 million units during the first quarter of 2015 – this is a 9.2-percent drop over the prior quarter.  They attribute the decrease based on the decline of smartphone demand in China, one of the largest markets…along with India.  Although they expect China’s sales to rebound, the current decline reflects a slowdown of China’s overall economy, lack of subsidy increases by the domestic carriers, the success of the iPhone in the first quarter and the depreciation of the euros.

Breaking down the numbers shows that Samsung has solidified the number one spot and pushed Apple further back to number two and China’s own Huawei comes in third place.  Samsung dominated with a 27.8-percent of the market share, based largely on the early success of their new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge models…analysts are estimating that Samsung could sell over 55 million Galaxy S6s in 2015.  The Galaxy S6 Edge has created more interest than Samsung originally thought – bringing it out as a companion model to the regular Galaxy S6.  The Galaxy S6 Edge has a dual-curved display that really sets it off from other smartphones, but with a $100 premium over the base Galaxy S6 model, Samsung was just hoping to draw people in with its unusually ‘cool’ looks.  It turns out the people are willing to spend the extra $100 and sales have become about 50/50 with Samsung finding itself in a position of running out of the curved-displays.

Samsung Galaxy S6 (Black, 32GB)

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