Samsung made 3.99 trillion won, or $3.58 billion, in the first quarter, making it the company’s most profitable quarter ever. Year-over-year sales rose across all its divisions, which include handsets, televisions and memory chips.
The company shipped 64.3 million devices in the first quarter, a 40 percent increase over last year when the company shipped 45.8 million devices. Phones with touch screens now comprise 27 percent of the company’s handset shipments, more than double the percentage of touchscreen devices the company shipped last year.
Demand for Samsung’s NAND and DRAM memory chips also remained strong. The company’s memory chip business posted a 76 percent increase in sales, which came in at 5.59 trillion won, or $5.01 billion. NAND memory chips are found in smartphones and other devices while DRAM memory is used in computers.
Revenue from Samsung’s LCD business came in at 6.85 trillion won, or $6.14 billion. The company’s Digital Media division, which makes televisions, appliances and consumer electronics, had sales of 12.61 trillion won, or $11.31 billion.