South Korea's Samsung Electronics said today its third-quarter net profit fell 23% year-on-year, but analysts were buoyed as the firm overtook key rival Apple in the lucrative smartphone market.
Samsung, the world's biggest technology firm in terms of revenue, said net profit for July to September fell to 3.442 trillion won ($3.086 billion) from 4.455 trillion a year earlier, mainly due to weaker flat-panel screen sales as a global economic slowdown took hold.
The world's largest maker of memory chips and flat-screen displays had recorded a higher net profit of 3.506 trillion won in the second quarter. Third-quarter operating profit was 4.252 trillion won, down 12.6%, and revenue was 41.273 trillion, up 2.6% from a year earlier, it said.
Those figures were in line with the firm's earnings guidance issued earlier this month.
The company said its telecoms businesses achieved record quarterly sales of 14.9 trillion won, up 37% from the previous year, with growth mainly driven by strong sales of Galaxy smartphones.
Operating profit for the businesses - which include mobile sales and telecommunication systems - also hit a record 2.52 trillion won.
Samsung vice president Robert Yi said the company achieved a solid quarterly performance despite the slowdown in developed markets, thanks partly to strong smartphone sales.
Samsung Electronics overtook its main rival Apple in the third quarter to become the world's largest seller of smartphones, according to data released today by market research firm Strategy Analytics.
Samsung sold 27.8 million smartphones while Apple shipped 17.1 million and Finland's Nokia sold 16.8 million, it said.
The Korean firm's share of the smartphone market rose to 23.8% in the third quarter from 9.3% a year earlier, while Apple's market share fell to 14.6% from 17.4%, the research firm said in a statement. Nokia saw its share fall drastically to 14.4% from 32.7%.
Strategy Analytics said Apple's growth during the third quarter was affected by consumers and operators awaiting the launch of the new iPhone 4S, volatile economic conditions and tougher competition from Samsung's Galaxy S2 model.
Samsung said it expects sales of mobile devices to stay strong and flat-panel TV shipments to rise in the fourth quarter.
