16 July 2004

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. posted $2.71 billion in overall net income for the second quarter of 2004, citing strong sales in its semiconductor, LCD and telecommunications networks businesses, and slight losses in its digital media and appliance businesses.

Its mobile-phone division remained unchanged in revenues from a year ago, again recording $3.96 billion in revenues. Even so, the number of phones sold increased to 22.7 million, up from 20.1 million in the first quarter, pointing out the effect of lowered pricing on handsets.

The company said it is on target to sell 86 million units for the full year, up from previous forecasts of 65 million. The company also expects average selling prices of phones to increase in the third quarter with pricier models coming to market.

Samsung also said it will increase its annual capital expenditure from $6.8 billion to $7.6 billion “to expand the gap between it and its competitors.”

Also to that end, the company’s Samsung Telecommunications America subsidiary said it plans to launch six new CDMA and GSM phones in the United States this summer.

The new product line-up will include the d415 phone with a color screen and multimedia features, the a790 CDMA/GSM global phone, the e316 and e317 integrated camera phones, the upgraded i600 smart phone, and the a700 megapixel camera phone with streaming video and camcorder capabilities.