Samsung Electronics Co shares plunged more than 6 percent yesterday, the biggest single-day drop in nine months, after analysts at JPMorgan forecast slower sales of its new flagship smartphone.
Shares in the world’s largest smartphone maker closed down 6.2 percent at 1,427,000 won.
Traders attributed the sell-off to a research note from JPMorgan analyst JJ Park, who said sales of the South Korean giant’s Galaxy S4 might not be as strong as had been expected.
“Compared to S3, S4 had stronger momentum in the first quarter of launch,” Park wrote.
“But the following quarter’s shipment is expected to be disappointing and its peak-quarter number seems way below our previous estimates,” Park added.
“Our supply chain checks show monthly orders have been cut 20 percent to 30 percent to 7 to 8 million units [from 10 million] starting next month,” he added.
JPMorgan now expects Samsung’s shipments of the S4 to be 60 million this year, compared with a previous estimate of 80 million.
Samsung sold 10 million units of the S4 — launched on April 26 — within 27 days, the company said.
JPMorgan cut its share-price estimate for Samsung by 9.5 percent to 1.9 million won and lowered its this year’s earnings estimates by 9 percent.
Samsung had looked to the S4 to expand its presence in high-end markets in the US and elsewhere, crowding out arch rival Apple Inc’s iPhone.
The S4, featuring a high-definition, five-inch screen and enhanced picture-taking capabilities, comes with a faster chip and is thinner and lighter than its predecessor.
Last month, Samsung unveiled a slimmed down S4 “mini” aimed at the mid-range market.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained