Samsung has posted its best quarterly profits since 2013 with strong memory chip and display sales, despite Sliding mobile sales.
The South Korean tech giant announced today that the company made a profit of $8.8 billion in its first quarter in the months January to March, marking the second most profitable quarter the group has seen.
Total revenue was roughly $4.7 billion and sent shares to a new high, up 1.5% whilst the rest of the market was down 0.3%.
In a statement, the company said: “Looking ahead to the second quarter, the company expects to achieve growth on the back of continued robust memory performance together with improved earnings from the mobile business following the global rollout of the Galaxy S8 and S8+.”
Samsung says that the main driving force behind these figures was its component businesses, as memory chip and displays both saw strong sales figures of premium products, though mobile sales had decreased.
The company’s new flagship phones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, did not launch until the end of April, meaning that those figures won’t be available until the company posts its results for the second quarter. Pre-orders for the device were better than expected, especially when considering last year’s Note 7 controversy.
In October of 2016, the company was forced to recall and discontinue the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 flagship smartphone due to a malfunction that caused batteries to overheat and even explode. This was a serious blow to the company but its component sales have managed to propel the company forward.
The Note 7 disaster wasn’t the only setback the company experienced during this time. Also during this time, the company was involved in a bribery and corruption scandal involving the, now impeached and imprisoned, president of South Korea.
Samsung has confirmed that another flagship device will be coming in the second half of 2017 which, coupled with S8 sales, should see the company’s mobile division posting
