Samsung Electronics reported a record quarterly profit of $7.3 billion, nearly double last year's figure, as strong sales of high-end TVs and Galaxy smart-phones more than offset reduced orders for chips and screens from Apple, its main rival and leading customer.
Most analysts, however, expect a run of four straight record quarters to end in December as the South Korean group, the world's leading maker of smart-phones, TVs and memory chips, ramps up its marketing to counter Apple's new iPhone and other products in a crowded $200 billion global smartphone market.
Samsung may have spent around $2.7 billion on marketing in July-September alone around the London Olympic Games and new Galaxy promotions, Credit Suisse has estimated.
This year's expected record profit of $25 billion will also trigger higher performance related payouts to many of Samsung's 206,000 staff early next year. And Samsung may have to set money aside this quarter if it fails in an appeal to overturn a court verdict that awarded more than $1 billion in damages to Apple for patent infringements by Samsung.
Analysts expect earnings to decline until the second quarter of next year as a slump in computer sales and a weak global economy sap demand for chips and electronics products.
"The biggest risk for Samsung is competitive product line-ups from its rivals such as the iPhone 5. Because handsets drive most of its profits, one misstep in handsets could result in losses for the whole Samsung group," said an analyst at KB Investment & Securities.
Profit at Samsung's mobile division is likely to have more than doubled in July-September as smartphone shipments topped 58 million.
