Samsung posts fourth straight record profitable quarter
updated 08:35 pm EDT, Thu October 25, 2012
Strong smartphone sales make up for drops in chip revenue
Reporting just hours after rival Apple, Samsung reported record quarterly profits doubling from a year ago and coming in at $7.4 billion. Weakness in its chip division were obscured by strong sales of the Galaxy range of products, which accounted for more than two thirds of the company's profit for the quarter.
Details of numbers of phone shipped were not given, but are estimated to clear 58 million. The most popular phone in the line, the Galaxy S III, is expected to account for 18-20 million of the total.
Chip manufacture and sales earnings fell 28 percent to 1.15 trillion won ($1.1 billion) attributable to the drop of the price of DRAM. Commodity prices of NAND flash chips found in mobile device storage raised somewhat, helping to offset the loss of revenue from DRAM sales. The company said that DRAM oversupply and lower prices are expected to continue for the remainder of the year.
Analysts view the streak of four consecutive quarters posting record profits as ending in December. Television sales are expected to stagnate regardless of the holiday season and the mobile phone market pace is slowing. According to Reuters, profit growth is expected to slow to 16 percent from this year's unprecedented 73 percent.
