الرئيسية
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co posted a
record $4.7 billion quarterly operating profit, driven by booming
smartphone sales, and will spend $22 billion this year to boost
production of chips and flat screens to pull further ahead of smaller
rivals.
The South Korean firm, the world's top technology firm by revenue, is
locked in breakneck competition with Apple Inc in the red-hot
smartphone market. Apple, overtaken by Samsung in the third quarter,
regained its crown as the world's biggest maker of smartphones in the
fourth quarter, with record sales of 37.04 million iPhones.
Samsung didn't give its own sales volume data, but research firm
Strategy Analytics put sales at 36.5 million smartphones in
October-December, with 3rd-ranked Nokia on 19.6 million. Smartphones
account for around 40 percent of all Samsung's handset shipments.
Samsung's telecoms business earned a record 2.64 trillion won ($2.35
billion) profit in October-December on increased sales of its flagship
Galaxy smartphones.
"The battle of the two big smartphone powers, Apple versus Samsung,
will go on," said Baik Jae-yer, fund manager at Korea Investment
Management, which has around 9 percent of its portfolio in Samsung
stock, according to end-September filings.
"The smartphone market will expand this year to more mid-and low-end
models that are affordable to the wider public," Baik said. "Rather than
focus on market share, I'd point out the strong contribution of
Samsung's handset business to earnings growth and margins."
Samsung's October-December operating profit of 5.3 trillion won
($4.72 billion) was broadly in line with its earlier estimate and topped
the previous record of 5 trillion won in the second quarter of 2010.
Profit rose 76 percent from a year ago and 25 percent from the third
quarter.
Samsung will increase spending this year by 9 percent to 25 trillion
won - more than the GDP of leading cocoa producer Ivory Coast - with 15
trillion won going to the chips division, 6.6 trillion won to flat
screens and the rest to boosting overseas production capacity and new
research and development centers.
The record investment dwarfs a combined 1.3 trillion yen ($16.6
billion) that leading Japanese technology companies - Sony Corp, Toshiba
Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Sharp Corp - have planned for the current year to
end-March.
Samsung competes with Sony and LG Electronics Inc in televisions, Toshiba and Hynix in chips and LG Display in displays.
LG Display posted a narrower quarterly loss on Friday on demand from
smartphone and tablet makers and as falling TV panel prices stabilize.
Samsung, which only entered the smartphone market in earnest in 2010 -
some three years after the introduction of the iPhone with the
touchscreen template - has adopted Apple's breakthrough concept probably
better than others - and now seeks to offer the Apple experience at a
better price, with better functionality.
Apple is Samsung's biggest client, buying mainly chips and displays,
and the two firms are locked in a bruising patent battle in some 10
countries from the United States to Europe, Japan and Australia as they
jostle for smartphone and tablet supremacy. In the latest legal
skirmish, a German court ruled against Samsung in the second of three
patent suits. The Mannheim court will decide on a third patent on March
2.
record $4.7 billion quarterly operating profit, driven by booming
smartphone sales, and will spend $22 billion this year to boost
production of chips and flat screens to pull further ahead of smaller
rivals.
The South Korean firm, the world's top technology firm by revenue, is
locked in breakneck competition with Apple Inc in the red-hot
smartphone market. Apple, overtaken by Samsung in the third quarter,
regained its crown as the world's biggest maker of smartphones in the
fourth quarter, with record sales of 37.04 million iPhones.
Samsung didn't give its own sales volume data, but research firm
Strategy Analytics put sales at 36.5 million smartphones in
October-December, with 3rd-ranked Nokia on 19.6 million. Smartphones
account for around 40 percent of all Samsung's handset shipments.
Samsung's telecoms business earned a record 2.64 trillion won ($2.35
billion) profit in October-December on increased sales of its flagship
Galaxy smartphones.
"The battle of the two big smartphone powers, Apple versus Samsung,
will go on," said Baik Jae-yer, fund manager at Korea Investment
Management, which has around 9 percent of its portfolio in Samsung
stock, according to end-September filings.
"The smartphone market will expand this year to more mid-and low-end
models that are affordable to the wider public," Baik said. "Rather than
focus on market share, I'd point out the strong contribution of
Samsung's handset business to earnings growth and margins."
Samsung's October-December operating profit of 5.3 trillion won
($4.72 billion) was broadly in line with its earlier estimate and topped
the previous record of 5 trillion won in the second quarter of 2010.
Profit rose 76 percent from a year ago and 25 percent from the third
quarter.
Samsung will increase spending this year by 9 percent to 25 trillion
won - more than the GDP of leading cocoa producer Ivory Coast - with 15
trillion won going to the chips division, 6.6 trillion won to flat
screens and the rest to boosting overseas production capacity and new
research and development centers.
The record investment dwarfs a combined 1.3 trillion yen ($16.6
billion) that leading Japanese technology companies - Sony Corp, Toshiba
Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Sharp Corp - have planned for the current year to
end-March.
Samsung competes with Sony and LG Electronics Inc in televisions, Toshiba and Hynix in chips and LG Display in displays.
LG Display posted a narrower quarterly loss on Friday on demand from
smartphone and tablet makers and as falling TV panel prices stabilize.
Samsung, which only entered the smartphone market in earnest in 2010 -
some three years after the introduction of the iPhone with the
touchscreen template - has adopted Apple's breakthrough concept probably
better than others - and now seeks to offer the Apple experience at a
better price, with better functionality.
Apple is Samsung's biggest client, buying mainly chips and displays,
and the two firms are locked in a bruising patent battle in some 10
countries from the United States to Europe, Japan and Australia as they
jostle for smartphone and tablet supremacy. In the latest legal
skirmish, a German court ruled against Samsung in the second of three
patent suits. The Mannheim court will decide on a third patent on March
2.