Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top memory chip and liquid crystal display (LCD) panel maker, said Friday that its first-quarter earnings fell 30.3 percent on-year, hurt by weak demand for TVs and PCs that eroded component prices.

Net profit reached 2.78 trillion won (US$2.59 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 3.99 trillion won during the same period a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The first-quarter bottom line was lower than a market consensus of 2.9 trillion won, according to analysts polled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.

Sales rose 6.8 percent on-year to 36.99 trillion won in the three-month period, while operating profit dropped 31.9 percent to 2.95 trillion won, which was in line with Samsung's earnings guidance released earlier this month. (Yonhap News)