Samsung posts best Q1 results ever, despite declining smartphone profitability

Samsung has released its financial report for the first quarter of the year that ended on March 31. As expected, the first three months of the year have been great for the tech giant, as it generated 50.55 trillion won or around $45 billion in revenue.

Operating profit increased by 48 percent when compared with the year before and stood at 9.9 trillion won (around $8.8 billion), which makes Q1 Samsung’s second-best quarter ever and the most profitable first quarter in its history. The company also managed to increase its net profit by 46 percent when compared with the same period a year ago — 7.68 trillion won (around $6.8 billion).

What’s interesting is that Samsung achieved great financial results despite the fact that sales of its mobile division declined. The smartphone business brought in an operating profit of 2.07 trillion won (around $3.4 billion), which is down 47 percent from the year before.

There are quite a few reasons for the massive decline in sales, with the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco being one of them. Additionally, Samsung said that it had to lower the price of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge in order to stay competitive. The company also mentioned that the newly released Galaxy A 2017 series sold well during the quarter as did the mid- to low-end devices, especially in emerging markets.

Despite the fact its mobile division didn’t do so well in the first quarter of the year, Samsung believes it will turn things around quite fast. It has high expectations for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, which have been selling great in South Korea, the US, and other countries around the world. The company will also release quite a few mid- to low-end smartphones during the year and the highly-anticipated Galaxy Note 8 phablet, which might help the mobile division get back on track.