As expected, Samsung has announced record profits of $7.4 billion thanks to sales stemming from its flagship Galaxy smartphone lineup.
It recorded a profit of $7.4 billion during the third quarter, attributing the earnings to its Galaxy smartphones and tablets, which have both made up for poor chip demand.
The South Korean electronics giant said its third-quarter operating profit increased by 91 percent, while revenue for the quarter that ended on September 30 stood at $47.5 billion, representing a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2011.
The firm's Mobile Communications division is responsible for half of that figure by accounting for $23.9 billion in revenue. Samsung specifically referred to the Galaxy S3 as one of the products that considerably raised profit margins. The smartphone became one of the best selling Android handsets of all time when it sold 20 million units in its first 100 days on sale.
While Samsung didn't divulge information relating to specific smartphone sales figures, analysts believe it sold around 60 million smartphones during the quarter. Comparatively, Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones during the same period.
Elsewhere, the company's display panel business enjoyed a return to profitability with operating profit equaling $1 billion, a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2011. However, profit deriving from Samsung's chip business decreased by 28 percent to 1.15 trillion won due to weak demand for DRAM chips.
"The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the U.S. and Europe," Robert Yi, Samsung's chief of Investor Relations said. "However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records."
