Samsung Electronics is expected to report another strong period of growth later this month, with Yonhap Infomax estimating the company’s operating profits jumped by 73 percent to approximately $15 billion in the final quarter of the year. The survey was based on predictions made by 19 established brokerage firms from around the world, most of which expect the South Korean tech giant to continue growing in the coming months.
Despite strong growth in the last 12 months, Samsung was still expected to do more in the fourth quarter of 2017 and ended up having its external targets downgraded after a significant number of major industry trackers concluded the company is unlikely to maintain its stellar momentum in the medium term. Such perception is likely to make Samsung into a victim of its own success and lead to a drop in its market capitalization in the second half of the year as investors start coming to terms with the fact that the Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer can hardly continue consistently breaking growth records in the coming years. Samsung’s recent performance boom is largely attributed to the strong global demand for memory chips that’s projected to start waning over the course of 2018 and significantly impact the firm’s bottom line. While Samsung is likely to retain the title of the world’s largest chipmaker it took from Intel last year, shifts in the global market will inhibit its general business prospects to the point that record quarters seem unlikely in the next several years, according to some industry watchers.
That change will still only be evident in the second half of the year at the earliest, as suggested by the new survey. For the time being, Samsung’s robust investments in the chip industry are continuing, with the company also being committed to maintaining its strong foothold in the consumer electronics segment. The tech giant is expected to announce a number of new TV models and appliances in the first quarter of the year, in addition to launching its new Android flagships in the form of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, both of which are rumored to debut at MWC 2018 in late February and start retailing by March.