Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday said it expects to take a hit to its operating profit of about $3 billion over the next two quarters due to the discontinuation of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

An employee checks an exchanged Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 7 at company's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, October 13, 2016.

The South Korean tech giant said in a statement it expected the blow to profit to be in the mid-2 trillion won range in the October-December period and about 1 trillion won ($900 million) for the first quarter of 2017.

The outlook brings to more than $5 billion the total losses the global smartphone leader has forecast as a result of the overheating issues, after it said on Wednesday it would suffer a $2.3 billion hit to third-quarter profit.

The premium device that was meant to compete with Apple Inc's latest iPhones at the top end of the smartphone market had to be scrapped earlier this week less than two months after its launch.

To make up for the lost revenue, Samsung said it would expand sales of products such as the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge phones.

"Additionally, the company will focus on enhancing product safety for consumers by making significant changes in its quality assurance processes," the firm said in a statement.

Shares in Samsung, which have fallen about 8 percent this week on news of the withdrawal of the Note 7, edged up 0.8 percent in early trade.

Source: Reuters