Samsung Electronics has reported a record quarterly profit- boosted by growth in smartphone sales.
Operating profits were £3.8 billion (6.72tn won) in the second quarter, a 79% jump from a year earlier.
Samsung, which makes the Galaxy range of smartphones, overtook Nokia as the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones earlier this year.
Samsung’s earnings are likely to rise further in the future given the situation that 60% of Samsung’s profits come from smartphones and smartphone-related components.
While Samsung has been increasing its share of the smartphone market, competitors such as Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry phones, have not been doing as well.
At the same time, Apple, which is considered to be Samsung’s biggest competitor, has yet to announce when it will launch the latest version of its popular iPhone- though next month may see some news on this front.
According to report by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipped 93 million mobile phones in the second quarter, accounting for 26% of the global market share.
Key risks
However, the firm also faces some risks, not least from the ongoing legal battles with Apple with the two firms fighting cases in multiple countries over claims of patent infringement.
The cases have resulted in some of Samsung’s products, such as its Nexus smartphones and the Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet PC, being banned in the US.
However, some cases have also been decided in favour of Samsung. But analysts said that the disputes were still a problem for the company.