Analysts expect the technology giant to see a marginal fall in income in the final quarter, as sales to retailers peak in the third quarter ahead of the holiday season and technology companies ramp up spending on marketing for the year-end rush.
Samsung Electronics (IW 1000/15) said Friday net profit almost doubled to a record 6.6 trillion won ($5.97 billion) in the third quarter, powered by strong smartphone sales and huge demand for display panels.
The world's largest technology firm by revenue also saw a record operating profit in July-September of 8.12 trillion won, up 91% from the same period last year.
Samsung said its mobile communications business took in 26.25 trillion won in revenue for the quarter, accounting for more than half the company's total.
"The business environment remained difficult with global economic uncertainties persisting amid the fiscal concerns in the U.S. and Europe," said Samsung Senior Vice President Robert Yi.
"However, we continued to break our quarterly profit records," Yi said.
The third quarter net profit figure was well up from the 3.4 trillion won net profit posted a year ago and beat the previous record of 5.19 trillion won set in April-June.
Sales surged 26.4% on-year to an all-time high of 52.2 trillion won.
Despite the record profits, Samsung shares fell 2.65% to close at 1.287 million won.
Analysts expect the technology giant to see a marginal fall in income in the final quarter, as sales to retailers peak in the third quarter ahead of the holiday season and technology companies ramp up spending on marketing for the year-end rush.
