Samsung once again posted a record quarter with third quarter net profits climbing to around $7.8 billion, up 26 percent annually.
Total sales of $55.5 billion represented a three percent quarterly jump and $34.4 billion in revenue from Samsung’s mobile division accounted for a huge chunk of the big sales number.
But Samsung surprisingly posted $9.1 billion in revenue from chip sales, up 12 percent quarterly. The increase in chip sale volume pushed the profit for the division up 17 percent quarterly to $1.9 billion. Samsung’s semiconductor operating profit more than doubled from one year ago.
Still, Samsung’s handset business accounted for the bulk of the company’s earnings. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, analysts estimated that Samsung moved between 85 million and 89 million smartphones during the quarter, but that higher feature phone volumes and lower top-tier phone prices will hurt handset margins.
Looking ahead, Samsung predicted balanced growth for smartphone demand in developed and emerging markets. But Samsung expects “healthy” demand growth for its tablets followed by a third quarter in which the company said “shipments sharply increased.”
Filed Under: Devices
