Lex专栏：三星业绩之“双城记” SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS
The records keep tumbling for Samsung Electronics. If earnings are in line with Wednesday’s estimates, the April-June period will be its second best-ever quarter in a row. This year Samsung Electronics deposed Hewlett-Packard as the world’s largest technology company by sales. In terms of net profit, it is on course to make more this fiscal year than the top 19 Japanese technology and consumer electronics firms put together. | 三星电子(Samsung Electronics)还在不断刷新着纪录。如果该公司二季度业绩与周三的预估一致，那么这个季度将继上季度之后，再次成为该公司历史上表现最好的季 度。今年，三星电子已经取代惠普(HP)，成为全球销量第一的技术公司。本财年三星的净利润有望超过日本最大19家技术及消费电子产品公司净利润的总和。 |
All this obscures the fact that the flagship company of South Korea’s largest chaebol is increasingly a tale of two units: one very good (semiconductors), the other fair to middling (panels, phones and digital media). The first is a largely commoditised market in which Intel, Samsung and TSMC are emerging as industry titans, selling vast numbers of components to plug into other people’s gadgets. | 所有这些骄人成绩，掩盖了这样一个事实：这家韩国最大财团的旗舰企业，越来越像是一部 “双城记”：一部分业务表现上佳（半导体），其它业务则表现平平（面板、手机及数字媒体）。前者是一个已基本商品化的市场，其中英特尔(Intel)、三 星和台积电(TSMC)正日渐成为行业巨头，出售大量的零部件，用在其它企业生产的小型电子设备上。 |
The semiconductor division should account for just over half of operating profits this year, from less than a quarter of sales. But the other unit is showing signs of suffering from years of prioritising speed over innovation; reacting, rather than acting. This is more than mere cyclicality. Five years ago, for every dollar it spent on selling and marketing, Samsung spent 58 cents on research and development. Last year that ratio fell to 1:0.48. At brand-fixated Apple, relative R&D spending rose by 2 cents during the same period, to 24. | 半导体业务应将贡献今年营运利润的一半出头，而销售额却不到四分之一。但其它业务却渐 渐显示出增长乏力的迹象，这要归咎于公司多年来对速度的重视甚于创新，一向被动地做出反应，而非主动出击。这不是简单的周期性变化。5年前，三星销售及市 场营销开支与研发开支的比例为1比0.58。去年，这一比例降至1比0.48。在注重品牌的苹果(Apple)，相关研发支出同期增长了2个百分点，至1 比0.24。 |
Perhaps as a consequence, Samsung is failing to set consumers’ pulses racing. Lacklustre sales of TVs and appliances meant that digital media probably posted falling operating margins in the second quarter. The handset division, too, has been officially “rebuilding”, a euphemism for struggling. Samsung’s new tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab, bears an uncanny resemblance to the iPad; the one difference of note is a 7in screen, to Apple’s 10in. Those me-too qualities are reflected in one metric that really matters: Apple’s $226bn market capitalisation is almost 2.5 times Samsung’s. |
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