Qualcomm Q4 $1.91B Profit Due to Smartphone Demand

Chip maker Qualcomm has announced its earnings for 2012's fourth quarter, with the firm generating solid profits due to strong smartphone demand.

Net profit increased by 36 percent to $1.91 billion on revenues of $6.02 billion. The latter figure is a jump of 29 percent when compared to 2011's Q4. Qualcomm’s licensing earnings increased by 20 percent to $1.8 billion.

Equipment and services sales jumped by 33 percent to $4.2 billion, with Qualcomm shipping 182 million modem chips. Over the holiday season, its chipsets were powering several popular smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, Google's Nexus 4 and Nokia's Lumia.

More than 600 devices available on the market now sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, while another 450 are in development; the rumored low-cost iPhone is expected to be one such device. Smartphone sales in China, meanwhile, increased by 115 per cent year-on-year.

"We are pleased to report record quarterly revenues, Non-GAAP EPS and MSM chip shipments, driven by the growing global demand for smartphones and our industry-leading portfolio of 3G/LTE chipsets," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Qualcomm chairman and CEO. "Our broad licensing partnerships and extensive chipset roadmap, including our recently announced best-in-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 600 processors, position us well for strong growth, and we are pleased to be raising our revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2013."

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