Samsung may have recorded a bad quarter in its Q3 2016 financial report, but it looks like things are taking a turn for the better already. In the last quarter, the Korean company saw a profit drop to two year low, but for Q4 2016, the company is seeing its best quarter in three years.
In its fourth quarter result, Samsung sees a consolidated revenue of KRW53.33 trillion (RM203.53 billion), and KRW9.22 trillion (RM35.19 billion) in operating profit for the quarter. That is up by 11.52% and 77.31% respectively compared to last quarter.
The success of Samsung’s fourth quarter of 2016 is mainly due to its Memory business and the Display Panel segment. Samsung says that “robust sales of high-end, high-performance memory products and expanded process migration in V-NAND, plus strong shipments of OLED and large-size UHD panels contributed to the profitability.” To top that off, stronger US dollar against the Korean won also contributed to a higher profit.
As for its mobile segments, it’s been only five months since the whole Galaxy Note 7 debacle, but it looks like Samsung is slowly but surely recovering. The company posted an operating profit of KRW2.50 trillion (RM9.54 billion) for its IT & Mobile Communications (IM) division, which increased by 12.11% compared to the same quarter last year. This is mainly due to strong sales of the current flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, as well as improved profitability in the mid-to-low segments. In 2017, Samsung predicts that the smartphone demand will be slowing down, but new services such as AI (on the Galaxy S8?) “are expected to be differentiating factors for the industry this year”.
This is definitely good news for Samsung, let’s hope that the company can keep its momentum up with better products this year, especially the upcoming Galaxy S8.
