Samsung reported its best earning results in two years on Thursday as the company's Galaxy S7 phones outperformed all expectations, despite slowing growth in the overall smartphone industry (via The New York Times).
The South Korean company announced a 8.14 trillion won ($7.22 billion) operating profit on revenue of 50.94 trillion won ($45.2 billion), up 18 percent from the previous year.
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The firm's key mobile division, which accounts for more than half its revenue, experienced "substantial earnings improvement" as its high-end Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones enjoyed expanded sales, despite competition from Apple's iPhones and by lower-end devices from Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Huawei.
Samsung forecast "solid" performance for the rest of the year despite increased competition as "other companies release new mobile devices", thanks to strong demand for its components, such as OLED displays, which the company expected to increase "substantially".
The company is also betting on an uptick in revenue generated by next week's unveiling of its Galaxy "Note 7" smartphone, which is thought to feature an edge-to-edge curved screen, an iris scanner, and potentially a USB Type-C port.
Samsung Galaxy Note7 in (from l to r) Black Onyx, Silver Titanium, and Blue Coral pic.twitter.com/QiePUEG9GP — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 1, 2016
The good news for Samsung came two days after its arch-rival Apple revealed its second consecutive year-on-year declines in quarterly revenue and iPhone sales, although the reported dips were smaller than analysts predicted.
In stark contrast to the marked popularity of Samsung's high-end devices, Apple's lower-cost iPhone SE was the bright spot in the Cupertino company's earnings call, gaining more traction than expected and going some way to soothe investor's concerns over growth.
Prior to the earnings call, Apple stock had lost more than a fifth of their value over the year amid mounting concerns about the slowdown. Despite worries, Apple's shares jumped as much as 7.5 percent on news of its Q3 results, as investors remained optimistic in the run-up to the company's iPhone 7 launch this September.
According to a recent report by Kantar Worldpanel, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 devices accounted for 16 percent of mobile purchases made by U.S. customers this year, while only 14.6 percent opted for an iPhone 6S or iPhone 6S Plus.
Growth in the smartphone industry will slow to 3.1 percent this year, down from 11 percent last year and 28 percent in 2014, according to researcher IDC.
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Top Rated Comments
How times have changed.
That said I don't think any Apple fan, or executive, can dismiss Samsung as in the recent past. It's just not credible anymore. And Samsung seems a bit more serious about it's smart home initiative too, something else that should worry Apple if it wants to be the hub of people's living rooms, as well as their pockets.
And with the iPhone 7 looking like a unappealing placeholder until Apple can get its act together for its top 2017 model, the Galaxy 7 just may hold the title as the most advanced phone on the planet and use it as an opportunity to steal less Apple service reliant users.