Hong Kong (CNN Business) Samsung is warning investors that 2019 is off to an even gloomier start than it feared. The South Korean tech giant said Tuesday that its earnings for the first quarter of the year will fall short of market expectations because of slumping demand for the memory chips and display panels it makes for electronic devices. Samsung had already warned in January that sales and operating profit would drop by a double-digit percentage this quarter, citing weakness in those same businesses. Tuesday's warning is just the latest sign of the pain some of the world's top tech hardware makers and their suppliers are experiencing, particularly in the smartphone industry. "It all ties back to the smartphone market outlook, which is not really buoyant at this point," said Kiranjeet Kaur, a Singapore-based analyst with research firm IDC.

Source: CNN March 26, 2019 11:15 UTC