outh Korea's Samsung posted Friday an 18 percent drop in operating profit in the fourth quarter, due to a one-off bonus

and slowing sales of the electronic giant's high-end smartphones. perating profit stood at 8.! trillion won "#$.8 billion%, down 18 percent from the &ulySeptember period, mar'ing the company's first quarterly profit decline in two years. (he fourth quarter figure was also down ).* percent from a year ago. (he world's top ma'er of mobile phones and (+s said earnings were hit by a ,negati-e currency impact, of $** billion won and a one-off 8** billion won employee bonus to mar' the .*th anni-ersary of a mar'eting strategy by /hairman 0ee Kun-1ee that laid the groundwor' for the company's recent success. ,For the first quarter it will be challenging for Samsung to impro-e its earnings as the wea' seasonality of the 2( industry will put pressure on demand for components and (+ products,, the company said. (he latest earnings result ended the company's long run of record quarterly profits on the bac' of surging sales of its flagship 3ala4y series smartphones. (he mobile di-ision posted a quarterly operating profit of 5.6$ trillion won, down ..8 percent from the third quarter. (he company statement said the di-ision's earnings were down due to seasonally increased mar'eting costs, as well as the one-off bonus. (he strength of the Korean won against other currencies also weighed on performance, inflicting foreign-e4change losses and ma'ing Samsung less price-competiti-e in the global mar'et. perating profit for the whole of .*1! was !).8 trillion won, up .$ percent from the pre-ious year. Samsung had a leading share of !8.8 percent in the global smartphone mar'et as of the third quarter of last year, followed by arch-ri-al 7pple's 1!.1 percent, according to the industry research firm 28/ sur-ey. 9ut its bottom line has been hit by competition from budget handset ma'ers, especially from /hina, and the company faces a fresh challenge this year after 7pple struc' a distribution deal with /hina :obile