The mobile division’s profit rose to 2.40 trillion won from 1.75 trillion a year earlier, lifted by sales of the Galaxy Note 5 as well as new lower-end products which have been struggling to compete with Chinese handsets made by the likes of Xiaomi Inc. Aside from Apple’s iPhones, new smartphones that has been recently produced by other competitors seems to be luring customers away from them.
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A lot of these profits come from Samsung’s strong grip on the chip market, where the company raked in 3.66 trillion won.
Huawei on Wednesday revealed its own results for the quarter, with its Consumer Business Group reporting total shipments of 27.4 million smartphones for the three months to September 30, a jump of 63 percent year on year. However, the average selling price was under pressure from a cut in price for the S6 and increased sales in the mid- to low-end range.
Its third-quarter net income was KRW 5.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 29,993 crores), up 28 percent over a year earlier.
In its fiscal second quarter, Samsung’s net profits and sales were down.
A major bright spot for Samsung’s financials continues to be its semiconductor and display panel components division, which brought in about $4.1 billion (4.65 trillion KRW) in operating profit, which is more than half of the company’s operating profit for the quarter.
Samsung’s components business also reaped benefits from a strong dollar and a weak local currency.
Lotte Chemical also held a directors’ meeting on Friday and passed a motion on acquiring the chemical companies from Samsung. But that will not help profit.
“The memory market saw an increase in demand… driven by an overall increase in capacity in chips and the launch of flagship smartphones and increased demand by data centres”, the company said in an earnings statement.
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On Tuesday, Apple forecast another record holiday quarter aided by resilient iPhone demand as well as converts from Google’s Android software, which drive most of Samsung’s devices. But Samsung’s models are cheaper. This will, in essence, make the smaller remaining pool of stock worth more per share, giving investors more money in their pockets, the company’s image more value and more freedom with remaining capital to the company.
