On Jan. 12, Samsung hinted that it was going to see a huge fourth quarter haul, and on Thursday it confirmed just that when it posted its highest period of profit ever. The South Korean company reported operating profits of 8.84 trillion won, or $8.27 billion. That's pretty much exactly what it predicted earlier in the month, and it nearly doubles (doubles!) the amount of money the company made in the same period last year.
Income was also up, with Samsung reporting $52.4 billion in revenue. That's almost a 19 percent increase over last year. Needless to say, Samsung had a good year.
"Despite uncertainties in Europe and concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff creating a difficult business environment, we did our best this quarter to achieve strong earnings based on a strategic focus on differentiated and high value-added products as well as our technological competitiveness," said Robert Yi, senior vice president and head of investor relations.
"Heading into this year, we are expecting a slow recovery in the component business due to reduced capital expenditures, while competition in the set business will intensify further as demand slows and the mid- to low-end market expands," he added.
The company's main driver of growth was sales for its smartphone line-up, and Samsung specifically highlighted the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2. Numbers were hard to come by, but according to data from Juniper Research, the company shipped 63 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, making up 30 percent of the entire market.
Demand for its displays and TVs didn't increase year-to-year, but profitability from high-end LCD and OLED displays made up for it and contributed to the company's bottom line.
Looking forward, Samsung cautioned that the first quarter of 2013 is a seasonally weak on, but that it expects the market for TVs over 60 inches to increase. The company also expects emerging markets like China and India to make up a bigger chunk of sales, though it said that growth in smartphone sales may be hindered due to intense pricing competition from rivals.
