The top five list remained intact from last quarter with Samsung remaining in front while also gaining share thanks to strong Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge performances.
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About 340.4 million smartphones were shipped in the second quarter, said Strategy Analytics, which added that the market had been hit by saturation in major markets like China and political events such as Britain’s decision to exit the European Union.
“The IT & Mobile Communications (IM) Division saw substantial earnings improvement led by expanded sales of flagship products such as the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge”.
The chip unit had helped buttress Samsung’s profit margins when the mobile business went into a protracted slump from late 2014.
The company reported 18 per cent jump in operating profit the previous quarter, mainly driven by improved performance b of the smartphone unit.
The world’s largest smartphone-maker is also confident that the release of a new large-screen flagship smartphone in the current quarter will help maintain the track record of its smartphone sales.
Samsung said it also invested 4.2 trillion won facilities: 2 trillion won for semiconductors and 1.6 trillion won for displays.
The global smartphone market struggled to grow in the second quarter. It’s a stark contrast to its rival Apple, which reported a 15-percent drop in quarterly sales due to slowing demand for the iPhone.
Samsung shipped about 72 million smartphones in the second quarter this year, according to The Korea Herald, citing Samsung executives speaking on a conference call to announce the company’s financial results.
Huawei was in third place, increasing its share to 9.4 percent from 9.0 percent in Q2 2015. Many recent publications believe that this will allow the company to cover up the high cost of its display panels and memory chips after the recent global slump in sales of gadgets. Samsung plans to new Galaxy Note model in early August, but expectations for new model sales are now low. Every quarter, Samsung owns about a fifth of a market, though sometimes its share is closer to one quarter.
“Tablet shipments continued to fall in the second quarter because there were few product launches that could boost sales and promotional activities were slacking in general”, TrendForce notebook analyst Anita Wang said.
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It marked the first time in two years that Samsung’s smartphone profit topped 4 trillion won.
