Global smartphone sales: Samsung shines, as Apple feels the pinch
Riding on the strong sales of its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones, Samsung Electronics on Thursday declared 8.14 trillion won ($7billion) year on-year operating profit – 18% in the second quarter results.
It was the highest quarterly operating profit since the January-March period of 2014, according to the company’s revised earnings report.
Industry trackers estimate that the world’s largest smartphone maker has sold about 26 million units of the S7 since it hit stores in March ahead of launches by competitors, including arch-rival Apple.
The mobile division accounts for the lion’s share of Samsung’s business, but it has been increasingly squeezed by competition both from Apple’s iPhone and by lower-end devices from Chinese rivals such as Huawei.
According to Samsung, it shipped about 90 million handsets in the April-June period with smartphones making up more than 80 per cent of the total, the Korea Herald reported.
Samsung’s second-quarter smartphone shipments are estimated at about 72 million units, almost doubling Apple’s iPhone shipments of 40.4 million units during the same period.
Shipments of tablet PCs stood at about six million units.
“Looking into the third quarter, the release of a new large-screen flagship smartphone will help to maintain solid sales of high-end smartphones led by the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge,” the company in a statement.
