Samsung posts $7.4 bln profit, handsets mask weak chip sales

Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS>, the world's top technology firm by revenue, reported record quarterly profit of $7.4 billion on Friday, with strong sales of its Galaxy range of phones masking sharply lower memory chip sales.

The South Korean firm said July-September operating profit increased 91 percent from a year ago to 8.12 trillion won, in line with its earlier estimate.

Samsung, reporting its results just hours after main rival Apple Inc , did not detail its third-quarter smartphone shipments, though these are estimated to have soared to 58 million.

Apple said it shipped 26.9 million iPhones in July-September. It launched its latest iPhone 5 on September 21.

 

Samsung also competes with Sony Corp <6758.T> and LG Electronics Inc <066570.KS> in televisions, Toshiba Corp <6502.T> and SK Hynix Inc <000660.KS> in chips, and LG Display <034220.KS> in screens.

Shares in Samsung have climbed 24 percent so far this year, easily outpacing the benchmark KOSPI's <.KS11> 5 percent gain, but only half the gains made by Apple.