Samsung second only to Apple for profitability

While the computer industry in general is in quite a mixed state with many companies struggling, like Elpida and Seagate, Samsung continue to perform well. Their latest profit figure of $5.9 billion is second only to Apple. They produced a huge $41.4 billion turnover for the year.

In recent times it seems like Samsung is getting involved with everything. Samsung are leading the way in the smartphone market, DRAM production, foundry production and displays. Their latest smartphone, the Galaxy S III is predicted to sell a healthy 19 million by the end of September according to analysts.

Nho Geun-chang, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities in Seoul said “Revenue is below our forecast, which suggests price pressure was more severe than had been expected in products such as televisions and home appliances.  Earnings will be stronger in the current quarter as sales of the high-end Galaxy S III will increase dramatically and drive the telecom division’s earnings to above 5 trillion won.”

With Samsung increasing growth in the Smartphone market, companies like HTC and Motorola are feeling the squeeze. Samsung plans to make a bigger push for the European market seeing the falling value of the euro as a great opportunity:

An unnamed Samsung executive spoke to Reuters saying “Europe is our biggest consumer electronics market and we may have to initiate cost cuts and product price increases should the euro fall further from the current level. Our smartphones are flying off the shelves, with some outlets reporting 40-60 percent sales growth, but that’s distorting the overall trading outlook which is more challenging due to the weak global economy and a weak euro.”

Samsung’s display leadership has been signalled in recent times by establishing a separate branch of the company, Samsung Displays, to deal primarily with production of displays. In addition the news that Samsung would get to produce some of Qualcomm’s 28nm demand also proved to be welcomed news for Samsung. In the memory market Samsung are leading the way with the first samplings of DDR4 server memory and the transition to smaller process 30nm memory chips.

All of this while Samsung is continually battling other companies in patent disputes, Samsung are currently appealing the Galaxy Nexus Ban in America.

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