South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics has posted its expected earnings for the second quarter of this year…and it forecasts its profit growth to be *lower than the first quarter's.<br />The reason for the fall? Poor smartphone sales.<br />Our Ko Roon-hee has more.<br /> <br />Samsung Electronics on Friday posted its expected earnings for the second quarter of 2018.<br /> Operating profit was up 5-point-2 percent on-year,... reaching some 13-point-2 billion U.S. dollars.<br />But that's 5-point-4 percent lower than the previous quarter's record profits…which stood at around 14 billion U.S. dollars. <br /> Samsung had delivered a string of record operating profits, and the figures released on Friday mark the first time in seven quarters that Samsung has posted an on-quarter decrease in operating profits.<br /><br /> Meanwhile…second quarter sales were estimated at 51.8 billion dollars…down 4-point-9 percent from a year earlier.<br /><br />Samsung did not offer net profit forecasts for each business division. <br />The company is expected to release its finalized figures later this month.<br /><br /> Analysts attributed the fall in profits to the weak sales of its smartphones. <br />They said Samsung sold fewer Galaxy S9 phones than expected... because it failed to draw in consumers, with no significant improvements from the previous model.<br /> The display segment is also expected to post weak earnings...because the price of LCD panels are falling. <br /><br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
