Samsung Announces Blowout Q2 Financials, Record Profits and Sales of Smartphone Devices, Market Unimpressed
It's official: Samsung is a giant. In case you weren't already aware that Samsung was a massive, money-making machine right in line with the likes of Microsoft, Oracle and Apple, the company's Q2 2013 earnings are proof that it has quite a bit of fundage in the bank. In the past three months, Samsung as a whole pulled in just under $7 billion in net profit, with revenues up 9% from the prior quarter.
In contrast to the first half of last year, revenue was up 19 percent and operating profit increased 51 percent in the first half of 2013 as profitability in the components business improved. The profit ratio reached 16.6 percent in the first six months of the year compared with 13.1 percent recorded in the same period last year. Samsung points out a burst in demand for OLED panels for smartphones as well as air conditioning units (yeah, Samsung makes those as well), and selling north of 20 million Galaxy S4 smartphone units doesn't hurt either.
On the mobile front, Samsung is starting to pull ahead from a global perspective. It was able to ship around 2.4x more smartphones worldwide than Apple in the most recent quarter, with estimates putting the figure at around 76 million units for the quarter. In sum, Samsung's holding out to a nearly 33% market share total for smartphones across the globe. Of course, record profits paired with slowing growth in the smartphone sector didn't exactly enthrall Wall Street, but this is the same Wall Street that can also fault Apple for making "only" so many billions in a quarter. Tough crowd, indeed.
What's clear from both Samsung and Apple earnings is this: smartphone growth isn't moving at the breakneck pace that it once was. Many who wanted a phone now have one, and the new flagships are so excellent, that there's no real draw in replacing 'em every couple of months. One has to wonder which of the major phone makers is going to revolutionize the industry once more -- the pressure's on, and the holidays are just around the corner.
In contrast to the first half of last year, revenue was up 19 percent and operating profit increased 51 percent in the first half of 2013 as profitability in the components business improved. The profit ratio reached 16.6 percent in the first six months of the year compared with 13.1 percent recorded in the same period last year. Samsung points out a burst in demand for OLED panels for smartphones as well as air conditioning units (yeah, Samsung makes those as well), and selling north of 20 million Galaxy S4 smartphone units doesn't hurt either.
On the mobile front, Samsung is starting to pull ahead from a global perspective. It was able to ship around 2.4x more smartphones worldwide than Apple in the most recent quarter, with estimates putting the figure at around 76 million units for the quarter. In sum, Samsung's holding out to a nearly 33% market share total for smartphones across the globe. Of course, record profits paired with slowing growth in the smartphone sector didn't exactly enthrall Wall Street, but this is the same Wall Street that can also fault Apple for making "only" so many billions in a quarter. Tough crowd, indeed.
What's clear from both Samsung and Apple earnings is this: smartphone growth isn't moving at the breakneck pace that it once was. Many who wanted a phone now have one, and the new flagships are so excellent, that there's no real draw in replacing 'em every couple of months. One has to wonder which of the major phone makers is going to revolutionize the industry once more -- the pressure's on, and the holidays are just around the corner.
