[DigitalToday reporter Daegeon Seok] Samsung Electronics' DS division earned 89.2 trillion won in the second quarter, while the DX division posted an operating loss of 800 billion won. Combined operating profit and loss for the MX Business and Network Business turned to a 700 billion won loss. While rising semiconductor prices lifted companywide profit, the same price increases fed back into costs for the device business.

The scale of the cost burden is evident in memory performance. Kim Jae-joon (김재준), vice president and head of the strategy marketing office at Samsung Electronics' memory business, said on a conference call on Wednesday that second-quarter ASP, or average selling price, rose from the previous quarter by the mid-40 percent range for DRAM and the high-60 percent range for NAND. At the same event, Daniel Araujo (다니엘아라우조), a managing director at Samsung Electronics' MX business, said memory prices rose from the previous quarter in the second quarter as well, worsening profitability, and that the cost burden was expected to continue in the second half. He added that he sees the current business environment as a difficult phase.

DX division second-quarter revenue was 48 trillion won. Revenue grew from a year earlier on flagship sales centered on the Galaxy S26 series and strong sales of the A series, but profit fell. MX business revenue rose from the previous quarter to 32.3 trillion won. It is a structure in which the company posted a loss even as sales volume increased.

Samsung Electronics plans to respond to the loss-making phase by adjusting its sales mix. Measures presented by Araujo included increasing the share of flagship models such as the Galaxy Z8 series and Ultra, upselling the A series such as the A57 and A37, and improving resource efficiency across purchasing, sales and development. He also laid out a plan to absorb market gaps created by component supply difficulties and increase volume share. However, no plan was presented to reduce costs themselves.

Even so, the market outlook for the second half is not favorable. Araujo said demand was slowing due to macroeconomic uncertainty and rising memory prices, and annual smartphone shipments were expected to fall. He said premium demand would be maintained, supported by the spread of AI features and form-factor innovation, while annual revenue scale and ASP were expected to rise. In the end, it is a structure in which volume falls and unit prices rise.

Such cost pressure spread across device businesses. Lee Heon (이헌), vice president at Samsung Electronics' VD business, said second-quarter profitability in the TV business fell from the previous quarter due to an overall rise in costs stemming from higher raw material prices such as memory. Heo Cheol (허철), vice president at Samsung Display, forecast that market uncertainty would persist in the second half due to issues such as memory supply and demand. Park Soon-cheol (박순철), vice president and CFO at Samsung Electronics, said for displays there were concerns about lower sales due to rising device prices stemming from memory supply and demand issues.

Amid the situation, Samsung Display began mass production from July on a new 8.6-generation IT OLED line based on full oxide. Heo said higher fixed costs during the ramp-up period in the early stage of operating the new line were expected to affect results to some extent in the short term. Even so, Lee said that while the TV device market has stagnated, the CTV advertising and services market continues to grow, and said the company would shift its focus from devices to service platforms.

◆ Robotics and vehicle electronics: organisation in place, but timing for profit contribution not presented

The conclusion of the conference call was that capabilities ultimately need to be concentrated on new businesses. The company presented robotics and vehicle electronics as growth engines for the DX division. Earlier, Samsung Electronics elevated its robotics organisation to the RS Business Promotion Office under the CEO, integrating everything from strategy establishment to hardware, AI software technology development and product planning.

For full-scale 추진, it appointed vice president Donggeon Lee (이동건), who led Boston Dynamics' robot strategy at Hyundai Motor Group, as head of the strategy team, and recruited people including professor Hyunjin Kim (김현진) of Seoul National University's Department of Aerospace Engineering and professor Uigyeom Kim (김의겸) of Ajou University's Department of Mechanical Engineering. It plans to build a robot production pilot line and a data factory in Gumi to secure technology and data at B2B sites such as manufacturing and logistics, then expand to B2C.

Vehicle electronics will be handled by Harman. Harman acquired Jayleff's ADAS, or advanced driver assistance systems, business and Sound United. It plans to expand from a focus on speakers and car audio into supplying smart camera sensors and high-performance controllers, and combine this with its digital cockpit capabilities to respond to a technology trend toward integration into centralized in-vehicle controllers. Harman's second-quarter revenue was 4.6 trillion won and operating profit was 400 billion won.

However, sales targets for the new businesses or the timing of their contribution to profit and loss were not presented on the day. Monetisation of service revenue beyond devices, which MX said it is reviewing, also remained at the level of saying it would be gradually fleshed out. Park forecast that for the DX division in the second half, a difficult management environment would continue due to uncertainty in the global economy and rising raw material and component costs, making profitability management an important task.