Samsung Electronics said Friday that preliminary estimates for its first quarter indicate that profits nearly doubled from a year ago, while revenues jumped by nearly a quarter.
Samsung did not elaborate on the reasons for its success; the figures represent a preliminary estimate, made by Samsung, that the company released before the company's board and accountants decide upon the final, actual results.
Still, the initial estimates show that Samsung is thriving.
Operating profits rose to 5.8 trillion yon ($5.12 billion) on sales of 45 trillion won ($39.78 billion). They represent a 96.6 percent gain in profits from the 2.95 trillion won ($2.61 billion) that Samsung recorded a year ago in the first quarter of fiscal 2011, and a 21.7 percent increase from the 36.99 trillion won ($32.6 billion) Samsung notched then.
Analysts cited by Reuters believe that Samsung shipped a record 44 million smartphones, including higher than expected shipments of the Galaxy Note (see slideshow below), the "phablet" that the company introduced at a size midway between a traditional tablet and a smartphone form factor.
Unfortunately, PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan was disappointed in the Note's form factor. "Samsung says it makes a phone for everyone, including, apparently, people with huge hands," he wrote in his review. "That's the only possible explanation for the Galaxy Note 'phablet'. While its size verges on a tablet, its software and usage scream 'phone'. That leaves the Note an unfortunate tweener, and this too-big phone is hard to love."
In coming quarters, however, Samsung could see a small but strategically significant revenue boost from the launch of its own ad exchange that will compete with Google on Samsung-branded smartphones and tablets.
Samsung's estimates represented the median of a range that included 5.6 trillion to 6.0 trillion won in profits, and 44 trillion to 46 trillion won in sales. Korean law does not allow the company to base its estimates on a range of figures.
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