Samsung Electronics, the world's top technology firm by revenue, posted record quarterly profit of $5.15 billion on booming sales of its Galaxy smartphones and the Note, a mini-tablet and phone.
Samsung, which raced to the top of the global smartphone rankings last year with close to a fifth of the market, from just 3 percent in 2009, is set to go head-to-head with Apple Inc this quarter with the expected launch of a revamped Galaxy S and Apple's next iPhone.
"Samsung and Apple are expected to launch the new Galaxy S and iPhone in the second quarter, respectively, and they will engage in a full-fledged war," said Lee Ka-keun, analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities.
Samsung's January-March operating profit was 5.8 trillion won, almost double the year-ago level and better than a consensus forecast of 5 trillion won from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It also topped the preceding quarter's previous record of 5.3 trillion won.
Revenue was 45 trillion won.
Samsung, Asia's most valuable technology firm worth some $191 billion, released its January-March estimates on Friday ahead of detailed quarterly results due on April 27.
"Higher-than-expected shipments of the Galaxy Note seem to have given an upside to earnings," said Hana Daetoo's Lee. "Note sales will increase further in the second quarter, and handset profit will grow despite a rise in marketing costs related to the London Olympics."
Choi Do-yeon, analyst at LIG Investment & Securities, said the bigger-than-expected jump in earnings, while revenue was in line with forecasts, indicated handset margins were strong.
"Handset margins are estimated to have topped 20 percent and profits from the division also topped 4 trillion won. This is really a blowout result and there could be more surprises in the coming quarters as other businesses such as chips show recovery," he said.
Apple had an operating margin of more than 37 percent in the October-December quarter.
Samsung is expected to have shipped a record 44 million smartphones in the first quarter just ended, up by almost 25 percent from October-December levels, according to a Reuters survey of analysts.
Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note, a mini-tablet and phone with a screen half the size of the iPad, in late October, and the top-end model has quickly become its core profit earner.
Sales of the Note, which has revived the throwback stylus function, have topped 5 million, increasing the pressure on gadget strugglers HTC, Nokia and Research in Motion.
The handset division is likely to account for around two thirds of Samsung's total profits, analysts forecast.
Winning formula
While Apple is Samsung's biggest rival in smartphones, the U.S. company is also its biggest client, gobbling up Samsung's high-end displays and microchips for its iPhone and iPad. The two are also locked in a bruising global patent war that spans about 30 legal cases in 10 countries.
"Samsung's integrated business model - for instance, it makes its own application processors and AMOLED screens - is the biggest ingredient of its winning formula, which, in our view, can't be easily copied," Daniel Kim, an analyst at Macquarie, wrote in a research note.
Earnings prospects for memory chips, where Samsung is also a world leader, have also brightened since Japan's Elpida Memory filed for bankruptcy, prompting its customers to switch to rivals such as Samsung and SK hynix to secure supplies of the chips used in smartphones and laptops.
"Contract chip prices are likely to continue to rise in the second quarter, possibly another 10-15 percent, as big customers like Apple, Dell and HP may seek to increase supply in the wake of Elpida's trouble," said Choi Sung-jae, an analyst at SK Securities.
Samsung shares opened a touch lower on Friday in line with a slightly easier broader market.
The stock has risen by a quarter so far this year, and hit a life high of 1.351 million won on Wednesday. Over the same period shares in Apple have soared by more than half, taking the California-based firm's value to above $582 billion - more than three times that of Samsung.
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012