AppleInsider Staff
Apple's main rival Samsung pre-announced its earnings on Friday, revealing that the company had an even stronger-than-expected quarter with operating profits of 8.7 trillion won, or $7.7 billion U.S.
Samsung's recent success is believed to have come from low- and mid-level smartphones.
The numbers represent a 53 percent from Samsung's earnings in the first quarter of 2012. In all the company had sales of 52 trillion won, which equates to about $46 billion, up 15 percent from the year-ago quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Samsung to see 8.3 trillion won in operating profit and 53 trillion won in sales, as noted by CNNMoney.
It's believed that Samsung's quarter was driven by low-end and mid-level smartphones. The company's flagship device, the Galaxy S III, took a hit in the wake of Apple's iPhone 5, while consumers awaited Samsung's next-generation handset, the Galaxy S4, which will become available for preorder April 16.
Samsung's better-than-expected quarter ahead of the Galaxy S4 launch may further drive home the belief among investors that Apple needs to offer a new low-cost smartphone that could be sold to consumers without a carrier subsidy. Rumors have suggested that Apple is planning to launch such a device later this year.
As for Apple's own fiscal quarter, the iPhone maker will report its earnings on Tuesday, April 23 after the markets close. A conference call will follow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific.
Analysts expect that Apple will reveal sales growth of around 9 percent, but net income will have dropped by about 17 percent year over year. The company's stock has struggled over the last six months as investors have expressed concern that Apple's growth could be slowing in the wake of surging competitors like Samsung.
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67 Comments
Samsung or Samsung electronics ?
1) edit: Pipped by [B]umrk_lab[/B]. 2) Either way, it's pretty good for being half of what Apple makes. I hope the other vendors using Android can find a way to come back into the black after Samsung destroyed competition by their less than ethical tactics.
Ars Technica's headline: Samsung’s string of record quarterly profits ends softly at a cool $7.7 billion
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/samsungs-string-of-record-quarterly-profits-clocks-in-a-cool-7-7-billion/
Samsung will continue to be an "also-ran" until they can manage to do original work and not be such thieves.
Great profits steal? ;-)
When all you get a a single billion (or is it half that now?) slap on the wrist for blatant plagiarism it makes it seem quite worthwhile. Bring back hanging I say. These 'fines' don't seem to deter wrongdoing.