TL;DR: After recently launching the highly anticipated Samsung S10 5G smartphone, the company told investors how, “Amid weak demand for memory business, a drop in price for signature products is expected,” with Agence France-Presse (AFP) claiming the tech giant suffered 60% losses during the first quarter compared to the same time period last year.

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Samsung Warns of 60% Losses

Reports out of Seoul, South Korea lauded Samsung’s new smartphone, S10, which boasted a first for 5G networks. The crypto community has also looked forward to the phone as a first with a built-in Ethereum wallet (various reports claim its already been hacked). AFP quotes the company, however, as revealing profits for this year’s first quarter are “down 60.4 percent on the same period last year.”

Considered the electronics division of the Samsung Group, the company has been around in one form or another for eight decades. It has well over a quarter million employees, and dabbles in everything from clothing to cars, medical equipment, home appliances, shipbuilding, to even entertainment and financial services, and, of course, electronics.

Electronics are perhaps its most well-known industry. As chip prices plummeted in response to greater supply this quarter, demand has also fallen sharply, something the company referred to as “unfavourable market conditions.” If numbers hold upon their formal release later this month, that would mean a return to 2016 levels for the company. Causes for the drop also include reputation stings from the exploding Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, and a corruption scandal involving the chairman’s son … ending with massive street protests in South Korea, and the country’s then-President’s eventual outster.

Rollout of the S10 5G last week was something of a victory for the company and the country, however, which complimented the phone by touting the world’s first 5G network. The company’s pending Galaxy Fold smartphone is also getting some positive press. Competition is getting tougher. Huawei phones are increasingly popular in China, and less expensive, gobbling up the once dominant Samsung brand’s foothold to less than 1% of the Chinese market. Other rivals such as LG, Verizon, and Lenovo all have new phones coming out soon as well, and Apple is always lurking.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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