Smartphone sales double Samsung profits
Samsung has predicted record profits in the third quarter, driven by sales of its flagship Galaxy smartphones.
The South Korean company beat analyst expectations as it predicts operating profits to reach 8.1 trillion won (US$7.3bn) nearly doubling last year's figure.
Shares in the company rose 1.5% as a result, as the world's largest technology firm by revenue forecast a 26% surge in sales in the three months to September.
Yet uncertainties surround their ongoing patent battle with Apple may damage forecasts, with the company still expected to pay their rivals $1bn damages after being found guilty of design infringement in the U.S. in late August.
A Californian jury made the ruling on August 27, recommending the world’s most valuable company be awarded compensation after finding Samsung guilty of ‘willful’ violations of a range of Apple patents.
But Samsung is demanding a retrial citing jury bias for the verdict, arguing the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, never told the court he was sued for a breach of contract by Seagate in 1993, a company in which Samsung is a major investor.
Irrelvant of how the case plays out however, Samsung is expected to have shipped 57 million smartphones through out the quarter.
Analysts are confident the company sold around 17 million units of Galaxy S III devices and six million of its Galaxy Note II tablet which both launched in Korea last week.
The company will launch the Samsung Galaxy S4 early next year to rival the newly released iPhone 5 from Apple according to Korea Times, with the South Korean firm expected to follow up the popular Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next February.
