Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. expects its earnings for the first quarter (Q1) of 2015 to decline as the company’s smartphone business continues to lose market share to competitors.

In an earnings estimate released Tuesday, the South Korea-based electronics giant said it expects operating profit for the quarter ending March 31 to be 5.9 trillion won ($5.4 billion), a 31 percent decline from the year-ago period and more or less the same as operating profit posted in the last quarter. The company also estimates that its Q1 2015 sales fell about 12 percent year-on-year, to 47 trillion ($43.2 billion).

Although still in decline, the company’s operating profit estimate beat the 5.5 trillion won average of 36 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

In an unprecedented statement to the press last Wednesday, Lee Joon, chief communications officer at Samsung Future Strategy Office revealed that Samsung’s Q1 earnings would beat analyst expectations.”There have been a lot of reports about earnings forecasts for Samsung Electronics. It’s fair to say that we will report improved profits during the January-March period,” Joon told reporters in a Seoul.

“There have been a lot of reports about earnings forecasts for Samsung Electronics. It’s fair to say that we will report improved profits during the January-March period,” Joon told reporters in a Seoul.

Samsung’s declining first quarter earnings further compounds the company’s smartphone woes after it reported a decline of 64 percent in earnings from smartphones and other mobile devices in the fourth quarter (Q4). Samsung also lost the top spot for smartphone sales when Apple Inc. sold 74.83 million iPhones worldwide compared to the 73.03 million smartphones sold by Samsung during Q4.

Samsung hopes to claw back some of the market share it has lost to competitors with its new flagship Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge handsets set to go on sale April 10.

Samsung’s Q4 loss of market share to Apple was a direct result of Apple releasing its larger-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in September. It’s not just at the high-end of the market where Samsung is losing out to competitors though. Chinese smartphone manufacturers, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, continued to increase sales of mid to low-end smartphones in China and overseas markets over the same period.

Last month a Gartner report revealed that Samsung’s share of the smartphone market dropped to 19.9 percent in Q4, down from 29.6 percent for the year-ago period.

Samsung did not break down divisional earnings in its estimate, but an average estimate from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News puts operating income from the company’s mobile business unit at 2.3 trillion won on sales of 27.1 trillion won.

Samsung will release audited results later this month.

photo credit: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge via photopin (license)