Coming off the back of the news that the Korean tech giant is now the world's number one smartphone manufacturer, Samsung Electronics has announced its financial results for Q3. The Galaxy S II maker achieved revenues of 41.27 trillion Korean won (R 290.08 billion),  which is a 3% increase year-on-year.

For this quarter, the Korean company posted consolidated net income of 3.44 trillion won (R24.18 billion), representing a 23% decrease year-on-year, whilst consolidated operating profit for the quarter was 4.25 trillion won (R29.87 billion).

Strong smartphone sales lead to record quarter

Highlighting the quarterly performance is the company’s telecommunications businesses, which recorded all-time high quarterly sales of 14.90 trillion won (R104.73 billion), which is 37% higher than the previous year. Strong sales of Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones played a substantial part in this strong showing. The company's telecommunications devisions delivered a record operating profit of 2.52 trillion won (R17.71 billion) and Samsung also overtook its bitter rival Apple, to become the  the world’s number one smartphone maker in Q3 of 2011.

Samsung’s semiconductor unit saw sales hit 9.48 trillion won (R66.63 billion) during the June-to-September period, after posting 9.16 trillion won (R64.38 billion) in the previous quarter (Q2). Increased demand for NAND flash chips used in mobile devices and enhanced revenue in the System LSI Business, which creates mobile application processors as well as CMOS Image Sensors, supported overall profitability.

“Despite the difficult business environment due to the economic slowdown in developed markets, Samsung achieved a solid performance and recovered its double-digit operating profit margin in the quarter, driven by strong sales of our smartphones,” said Robert Yi, vice president and head of Investor Relations.

Q4 forecast & local market

Looking ahead into Q4, when industry demand is traditionally at its peak, Samsung expects sales of mobile devices to remain strong and flat panel TV shipments to increase. However, Yi cautioned that due to lingering global economic uncertainties, “We cannot rule out the possibility of demand growth slowing compared to previous years.”

“Locally we have seen phenomenal market growth in two key areas including refrigeration and home theatre - as well as sustained market positioning in the flat panel TV market and washing machine sector. This brand strength is certainly directly related to the locally relevant product offering that we foster and we expect to continue to see such growth into the next quarter,” stated Deon Liebenberg, MD of Samsung South Africa.

 

In related news Samsung also recently launched the Galaxy Note device locally, which, due to its 5.3” (1280 x 800, 285 ppi) HD Super AMOLED display, is bigger than your average 4” smartphone, but smaller than a 7” tablet.