Samsung forecasts record quarterly profits as smartphones outsell Apple

Samsung expects to see a profit of £5.8bn for the past three months as its smartphones outsell Apple globally, shipping around 85 million devices, compared to some 35 million iPhones.

The South Korean electronics giant is expected to post a record operating profit of 10.1trn won (£5.8bn) in the third quarter of this year.
The estimate represents a 25% increase from a revised operating profit of 8.06trn (£4.62bn) won a year earlier for the world’s top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs.
Analysts said rising memory chip and semiconductor prices were probably the main growth driver in the July-September period, as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series struggles in the increasingly saturated high end of the global smartphone market.
Samsung’s strength in the market for cheaper smartphones was also a factor, they said.
The third quarter estimate marks a 6% rise from the April-June quarter, when the tech behemoth posted an operating profit of 9.53trn won (£5.51bn).
Sales in the July-September period were expected to be up 13% from the same period last year.
The world’s largest technology firm by revenue was giving revenue guidance before official results later this month.
The company did not provide a net profit estimate or a breakdown of figures for each of its business units.
But analysts estimate Samsung shipped between 85 million and 89 million smartphones in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, Samsung had a dominant 33.1% share of the global market, while rival Apple trailed in second place with 13.6%, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.
Meanwhile, rival HTC has reported its first ever quarterly loss, of £63m, in the July- September period after sales were down 33% year-on-year.