Between the release of Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge flagships and good sales of older high-end, as well as mid-range and budget devices, Samsung Electronics is expected to post significantly improved earnings for the first quarter of 2016, mostly thanks to its mobile and IT businesses. Specifically, industry analysts expect that Samsung’s mobile division will report an operating profit of 3.5 trillion South Korean Won, i.e. just over $3 billion US. Some more optimistic forecasts even predict that the company’s mobile division will post as much as 4 trillion won of operating profit for Q1 2016.
These predictions come shortly after Samsung’s spokesperson announced that the company’s first-quarter total operating profit will reach 6.6 trillion Won which approximately amounts to $5.74 billion. This specifically means that Samsung is expecting 10.37% larger profits than what it achieved in the first quarter of last year. In comparison to Q4 2015, the 6.6 trillion won figure marks a 7.49% increase. Furthermore, the company also revealed that its consolidated sales will likely reach 49 trillion won ($42.3 billion), which is also a small increase in comparison to the same period last year. Naturally, as Samsung still hasn’t posted its official earnings, the South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer also didn’t break down its expected earnings to particular divisions, but the industry experts are claiming that the improved guidance report was largely influenced by some rather strong sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 lineup.
We’ll soon know whether the Samsung Mobile division has truly been performing so well in the first quarter of this year as the company is announcing its audited earnings results for the said period this Thursday, April 28th. Naturally, that only applies to revenue-related performance as we already know that Samsung Electronics sold quite a lot of smartphones in the first three months of 2016. Five days ago, the company revealed that it sold 81 million smartphones in this period, i.e. over a quarter of all mobile phones sold worldwide in Q1 2016 have been manufactured by Samsung. Impressive? Undoubtedly. Sustainable? Unlikely, at least in the short term considering how most other top Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are yet to launch their flagship devices which will compete with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 series.