Earlier today Samsung revealed that its third-quarter profits had dropped 23 per cent over last year, to $3.1 billion, attributing this to poor chip - primarily flash - and display sales.
However as revealed in a recent posting, Samsung intends to tackle the issue of displays with the introduction of commercially-available flexible panels early next year, and we think Samsung's position in this area is now looking very promising.
What's more interesting is that whilst Samsung profits as a whole dropped, the mobile division saw profits more than double over the same period with Samsung seeing exceptional growth. Underscoring this, the Galaxy S II smartphone has sold over 10 million units in five months.
This news ties in perfectly with a new report from research firm Strategy Analytics which announced Samsung actually overtook Apple in smartphone shipments in Q3 011, with Samsung having shipped 27.8 million smartphones against Apple's shipments of 17.1 million, representing a near-60 per cent lead.
Strategy Analytics attributed poor iPhone sales to the build up of the iPhone 4S release, as shoppers chose to wait. This isn't an unreasonable deduction, as four million iPhone 4S smartphones were sold during the first three days of sale.
With such success from Samsung's mobile division not able to stem the overall profit tide, it reminds us of just what a behemoth Samsung is.
