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Samsung boasts 91 percent profit boost on Galaxy S3 sales

South Korean giant on a roll as analysts estimate it captured 35 percent of smartphone sales

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  • Gareth Morgan
  • Gareth Morgan
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Tech giant Samsung has posted bumper third quarter profits of £4.6bn - a 91 percent year-on-year increase - which it attributed to phenomenal demand for its Galaxy S3 smartphone.

Sales at the South Korean titan hit £29.5bn for the three months to 30 September, up 26 percent on the same quarter last year.

Samsung said its record profits for the quarter were thanks to sales of its Galaxy S3, which have helped increase profit margins.

Samsung said it had managed to increase the average sales price it achieves for its smartphones thanks to the success of premier products, such as the S3, despite ongoing economic issues in several markets.

“The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the US and Europe. However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records,” said Robert Yi, head of investor relations, at Samsung.

While Samsung was understandably keen to promote the runaway success of its Galaxy S3, its rocketing profits were also driven by the success of its display panels.

The results come as analysts report rocketing smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2012.

According to analyst house Strategy Analytics, 162 million smartphones were sold in Q3 2012, with Samsung accounting for 35 percent of sales, shifting 56.9 million devices.

“Samsung and Apple combined now account for over half of all smartphones shipped worldwide, up from around one-third a year ago,” said Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Samsung's arch rival Apple, meanwhile, sold 26.9 million iPhones in the same period, giving it a 17 percent marketshare – up from 14 percent a year earlier.

Apple, however, has had a disappointing quarter in comparison to Samsung. Sales of Apple's iPad were lower than expected.

The domination of Samsung and Apple in smartphones was bad news for Nokia, which has tried to carve out a niche for itself as the go-to supplier of Windows Phone handsets.

It sold 16.8 million smartphones in the quarter, giving it just four percent of the market. Last year, Nokia commanded a 14 percent share.

“Nokia will need to ramp up sharply its Windows Phone volumes if it wants to recapture a top-three smartphone position in the next one to two quarters,” said Shah.

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