Asia's largest consumer electronics company, Samsung Electronics, is on a roll. Beating all estimates, Samsung reported a record quarterly profit, primarily on back of surging sales of its Galaxy line of Android smartphones. Smartphone shipments were so massive that it completely masked Samsung's declining earnings in Chips and LCD Panel business.
Samsung's smartphone shipments surpassed a record 300 million units last year as its Galaxy range of smartphones became a rage all over the world. Samsung has reportedly shipped more than 10 million units of its recently launched high-end Galaxy S2 smartphone since May 2011, which also became Samsung's fastest selling smartphone to date.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung's operating profit increased 73 percent to 5.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion) in the three months that ended in December, company said in a statement today. That beat the 4.6 trillion-won average of 29 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 12 percent to 47 trillion won.
But things are not all hunky dory for Samsung Electronics. Samsung, which bought out Sony Corp.'s stake in their LCD-making venture last month(which was formed in 2004), is introducing more high-end smartphones and tablets to cushion the slump in its computer chips and TV panel sales. Profits from its semiconductor division fell by around 11 percent to 1.6 trillion won on sales of 9.65 trillion won while the average selling price of Samsung’s flat-screen panels dropped 21 percent in 2011 amid stagnating TV sales, according to Bloomberg.