Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge
Samsung's President and Chief Executive JK Shin walks on stage during the presentation of the Galaxy S6 smartphone at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 1, 2015. Reuters/Albert Gea

Following its poor second quarter results where the company’s net profit fell by 8 percent, Samsung is expected to slash the prices of its flagship phones, the Galaxy S6 and the curved-screen S6 Edge, to maintain sales growth. Both phones were introduced in March 2015.

The company’s profits have dropped for the fifth successive quarter, as revealed in the second quarter results. Even though Samsung aggressively promoted its brand new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones, the tech giant reported less favourable revenue for the second quarter.

Its operating profits fell 4 percent to 6.9 trillion won (AU$ 8.07 billion, US$5.9 billion), and the mobile division in particular dropped to 2.76 trillion won ($2.4 billion) from 4.42 trillion won (AU$3.2 billion, US$3.8 billion) from the same quarter last year.

A report on Engaget mentioned that for Samsung to catch up with Apple in the second quarter, with its upcoming of launch its new iPhone, Samsung has decided to drop the prices of both of its flagship smartphones. As anticipated by Reuters and Bloomberg, Samsung was unable to gauge the demand of curved-screen Galaxy S6 Edge and thus failed to ship enough handsets, which resulted in the slump in profits. The regular version also reportedly failed to beat the iPhones. However, analysts claim that this move indicates Samsung cannot beat Apple in brand loyalty among users.

Despite releasing its most critically acclaimed phones, Samsung continues to struggle against Apple in the high end market. Analysts said that the price cuts may increase sales, but it is highly doubtful if that could bring in bigger profit growth.

Samsung is yet to announce the percentage of the said price cut. The company is also expected to launch new premium smartphones in August, probably a new Galaxy Note and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.

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