HTC’s Q2 numbers just went up just a few minutes ago, and they made less than $50 million. According to Samsung’s Q2 estimates, they think they’re going to hit $8.3 billion, with a “B”. No word as to how many smartphones Samsung actually shipped, though I’m sure we’ll see some guesses towards the end of the month when Samsung posts actual data.

How to solve a problem like high expectations? Samsung operating profit increased 47% YoY and 8% QoQ and the share price is down over 2%.

— Geoff Blaber (@geoffblaber) July 5, 2013

Now the important question: Is the $8.3 billion figure good? According to analysts, no. They expected more, about $440 million more. Samsung is in the awful position of realizing that the high end smartphone segment is starting to reach saturation, and that without a competent strategy to attract customers to their midrange devices, they’re screwed.

That’s not to say that Samsung doesn’t make any midrange devices, it’s just that the ones they do aren’t very price competitive. A typical 4 inch WVGA dual core phone with 3G connectivity running Android 4.1 will run at least 200 EUR from them. You can get the same thing from Huawei for at least 25% less. So Samsung has to figure out how to either hit lower price points while not sacrificing their margins, or starve Huawei and the other Chinese makers by throwing the notion of profit to the wind.

Tough decisions will need to be made.