Samsung reports soaring Galaxy S and Wave sales

Samsung sold 63.8 million handsets in its second quarter

Samsung has announced record second-quarter profits of 5.01tn Korean won (£2.7bn), an 88 per cent year-on-year increase.

The rise was mainly down to Samsung's semiconductor business, which recorded an operating profit of 2.94tn won (£1.5bn), while the LCD Business generated an operating profit of 880bn won (£476m), the firm said.

Mobile phone sales shot up by 22 per cent, and Samsung sold 63.8 million handsets in the three-month period. Touch-screen handsets made up 30 per cent of the sales, doubling the figure from the previous year.

Mobile phone operating profit margin was 7.2 per cent, but increased market competition from Apple and Motorola caused a slight decline in average sale prices, Samsung noted.

"With intensified competition throughout the digital media and mobile industries, it may become a challenge to maintain current profitability levels, " said Robert Yi, vice president and head of Samsung Electronics' Investor Relations Team.

"However, we will continue to focus on introducing differentiated products and widening our technology leadership in components to meet these difficult market conditions."

Samsung's Galaxy S and Wave models are leading the smartphone charge, and the company's profits are likely to continue upwards for the remainder of the year.

The manufacturer has also said that it will launch a range of mid-end smartphones in a bid to expand its user base.

Francisco Jeronimo, research manager for European mobile devices at analyst firm IDC, told V3.co.uk that Samsung could overtake Nokia to become the handset market leader in total market share in Western Europe later this year.

Samsung's UK Mobile division, meanwhile, confirmed in a Twitter post that it is developing the Android 2.2 Froyo update, which will be available on all networks at the end of September.

The company is also working on an Android-based tablet which will be launched later this year, according to various reports. The only detail to emerge is that the device may come with a 7in screen, 2.7in smaller than Apple's popular iPad.

V3.co.uk contacted Samsung but it had not responded at the time of publication.