Samsung’s second-quarter earnings are expected to be “not that good” according to Chief Financial Officer Lee Sang Hoon, despite the release of the Galaxy S5 during the three-month period.

The comments first surfaced in the South Korean media before being picked up by Bloomberg, and then confirmed by the company itself.

In the first quarter, Samsung reported that quarterly profit from its IT & Mobile Communications unit – which includes its handset business – fell year-on-year because of lower sales in the highly competitive market.

However, the April launch of the flagship Galaxy S5 might have been expected to give a bump to Q2 earnings.

Indeed Samsung said in May that it had already shipped 10 million units of the Galaxy S5.

But the Korean giant is facing competition coming in two directions: at the high-end from Apple and an assault at the lower end of its portfolio from Chinese vendors.

IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo tweeted this morning that he believes Samsung’s smartphone shipments will be flat this quarter from the same period last year (Q2, 2013) and fall from the 88.5 million units in Q1, 2014.

Samsung may report preliminary earnings for the second quarter as soon as next week.