Samsung Profits As Galaxy S7 Boom Continues
South Korean giant takes smartphone bragging rights, after healthy profit thanks to booming S7 takeup
Samsung shipped twice as many Galaxy S7 smartphones as Apple did iPhones during the past three months as the electronics giant posted its largest quarterly profit in two years.
The Korean manufacturer sold 75.6 and 78.3 million smartphones during the quarter and posted a net profit of 5.85 trillion won (£3.95bn), compared with 5.75 trillion won (£3.88bn) a year earlier.
Strong Performance
Sales meanwhile rose to 50.94 trillion won (£34.4bn) from 48.54 trillion won (£32.8bn) year-on-year
The component unit had a solid quarter but overall earnings fell due to declines in the industry as a whole. That said, there was increased demand for semiconductors for mobile and SSDs.
Looking ahead, the South Korean giant predicted a solid second half of the year, but its spending on marketing is expected to rise as Samsung seeks to counter the arrival of the upcoming Apple iPhone in the third quarter.
That said, Samsung expects demand for smartphones and tablets in the second half to increase, but admits market competition will strengthen as “other companies” release new mobile devices.
Apple Battle
The Samsung results demonstrate the see-saw battle it has with its smartphone arch rival Apple.
Earlier this week, Apple revealed net profit down to $7.8bn (£5.9bn) on sales also down to $42.36bn (£32.2bn), as iPhone sales dropped for the second consecutive quarter.
It should be noted however that Apple remains a hugely profitable organisation, but analysts are concerned about future product rollout as Apple’s two straight quarter decline, contrasts starkly with its prior 13 years of quarterly revenue reports without a decline, dating back to 2003.
Apple undoubtedly was hurt by the fact that its principle cash cow, the iPhone, witnessed a 15 percent drop in shipments to 40.4 million units in the quarter, down from 47.5 million in the third quarter of 2015.
Sales of iPads dropped 9 percent to 9.95 million from 10.9 million a year ago, while Mac sales fell by 11 percent to 4.3 million from 4.8 one year ago.
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