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Samsung to stop releasing data on phone sales

The Korean mobile phone provider is putting a stop to future sales reports and forecasts on its cell phones and tablets, a move it says is designed to lower its risks in the face of greater competition.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read

Samsung will no longer provide sales data and forecasts on its mobile phones and tablets.

Announcing the new policy today, the company said that revealing such information may present risks to its business in the face of increased competition. However, analysts believe the move is also related to the company's legal skirmish with Apple, says today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Releasing its second-quarter earnings today, Samsung said that its mobile sales rose 43 percent year over year. The company also reported selling 70 million mobile devices for the quarter, but that figure included its Galaxy Tab tablet, according to the Journal, leaving analysts uncertain how many phones were sold.

Samsung actually recorded a drop in its quarterly earnings but said that smartphone sales continue to grow. A huge contributor to the gain in sales, the company's Galaxy S II smartphone pulled in 5 million in unit sales during its first 85 days.

Calling Samsung "one of the most guarded companies in the electronics industry," the Journal said that the figures on phone shipments was one of the "rare morsels" of detailed product information that Samsung had offered as part of its earnings reports.

Samsung has been embroiled in an ongoing lawsuit with Apple in which the two have traded blows over allegations of patent infringement. As part of the legal war, Samsung had been ordered to hand over to Apple samples of some of its phones and tablets. More recently, Apple has tried to block certain Samsung devices from reaching the U.S., including the Galaxy 10 tablet.

Samsung also lost a preliminary ruling in the original case over comments from one of its executives that the company redesigned the Galaxy Tab 10 after seeing the iPad 2, the Journal noted.