Samsung to Break Another Profit Record, Creeps Closer to Apple

From DailyTech: Apple, Inc. (AAPL) won't announce its fiscal Q2 2013 (calendar Q1 2013) quarterly earnings until April 23, but South Korea's Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930), has already started things off with a bang, issuing impressive earnings guidance. The record profits come before the company even started shipping its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S IV, which will go on sale later this month.

With Apple predicted to draw $10.1B USD, Samsung showed just how close it is getting to the American firm in profitability. Samsung's earnings guidance suggests an 8.7T won ($7.7B USD) profit, up over 50 percent from the 5.7T won ($5.0B USD) profit it posted in the first calendar quarter of 2012. Samsung predicts sales of around 52T won ($45.93B USD).

That's a bit of a surprise -- a survey of 10 analysts by UK-based Financial Times, a Pearson PLC unit (LON:PSON), found an expectation of 8.0T won ($7.0B USD) in profit. A newer compilation by Bloomberg of 39 analysts' predictions showed an average expectation for 8.4T won ($7.4B USD) in profit.

Samsung's mobile sales are expected to rise around 40 percent on a year-to-year basis. Mobile is expected to post a profit of around 6.25T won ($5.5B USD), remaining Samsung's most lucrative division (Samsung's large component electronics, display, and household electronics units typically post leaner margins).

When you take just the smartphone sales of Samsung's mobile unit, the company appears to be nearly as profitable as its archrival Apple, a feat analysts long thought would be impossible for an Android phonemaker.

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