Samsung won’t show all its mobile models

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phones, said it won’t display some of its new handset designs at coming exhibitions to prevent competitors from copying them. Samsung will display only a few of its new models at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and this spring’s CeBIT fair in Hannover, Germany, the company said yesterday. Companies’ copying of each other’s handset designs and functions has cut profitability in the industry and undermined competitiveness, it said. Intensifying competition among the world’s largest mobile phone vendors has driven down profit margins for handsets. Samsung’s operating profit from its telecommunications business fell to 13 percent of the division’s sales during the third quarter from 16 percent in the second quarter and 26 percent in the first quarter. Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest handset maker, regained market share during the third quarter by cutting prices and introducing new clamshell-shaped phones after its market share fell to a five-year low at the beginning of the year.