Samsung warns that its third-quarter profit will plummet 60%

Samsung Electronics Co., after years of cutting into rival Apple’s sales of smartphones and tablets, is about to report a whopping 60% decline in third-quarter profit.

The South Korean electronics giant released a weak guidance Tuesday, revealing that it expected third-quarter operating profit to fall to about 4.1 trillion Korean won ($3.8 billion), down 60% from 10.2 trillion Korean won in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue, too, is expected to take a hit for the July-September period: Samsung said consolidated sales would be about 47 trillion Korean won, down 20% from 59.1 trillion Korean won a year earlier.

That would make it Samsung’s worst quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2011, according to Thomson Reuters. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected Samsung to post an operating profit of $5.2 billion.

Contributing to the company’s problems is a bifurcated smartphone market: Apple continues to grab share at the high-end, while Chinese rivals have been ramping up their sales in the lower-end market.

Samsung sent reporters a statement in which it said: “The company is preparing new smartphone lineups featuring new materials and innovative designs.”

Twitter: Andrea Chang