Samsung expects 60% fall in Q3 profits

Samsung is reportedly expecting a 60% drop in profits for the third quarter of 2014, blaming higher marketing costs and lower handset sales. This would be the fourth straight quarterly drop for the South Korean company.

The South Korean electronics giant said it expects to record an operating profit of 4.1 trillion won ($3.8 billion) for the quarter ended September 30, a 59.7% drop from the year-ago quarter. The company also said it expects sales for the quarter to come in around 47 trillion won, a 20% decline, CNET reported.

The guidelines from Samsung did not mention anything about the details of divisional earnings, but the company released 'reference materials' to address concerns about the current state of the company.

Meanwhile, it also noted that its earnings were hurt by increased price competition, and selling the older 3G phones in China proved hard as the country shifts to 4G LTE technology.

Those factors contributed to a 30% drop in profits in Samsung's mobile division in the June quarter and caused the company to warn that the second half of 2014 would remain a challenge, the report said.