South Korean electronics giant Samsung has delivered a 76 per cent jump in quarterly profits, boosted by the popularity of its Galaxy smartphones, which outsold rival Apple’s iPhone for the fourth quarter in a row.
However, the company warned that earnings are expected to decline during the current quarter because of seasonally low demand for consumer electronics.
Net profits for the final three months of 2012 totalled 7 trillion won (£4.2 billion), up from 4 trillion won a year earlier and ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Samsung, which overtook Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone maker last year, said operating profits at the division that makes and sells smartphones and tablets more than doubled to 5.44 trillion won.
The group’s strong performance has heaped pressure on Apple, which earlier this week disappointed investors with its quarterly results, despite unveiling record revenues of $54.5bn (£34.5bn).
Apple said iPhone shipments were also a record, but the 47.8 million figure was well below analysts’ forecasts of 50 million units.
Analysts believe Samsung shipped more than 60 million smartphones during the three months to December, which would put sales for the year at more than 200 million handsets.