KOREA: Samsung beats expectations on sales and earnings, but sees US 3D TV share slide

Samsung's results for the third quarter of the year exceeded market expectations, with sales revenue up nearly 5% on the previous quarter, and operating profit rising by over 13% quarter-on-quarter.

Sales were W41.27tn (just over £23bn), and operating profit W4.25tn (£2.38bn), both figures impressive in the current economic climate.

Analysts now think the company is on-track to achieve its target of '150-15' (annual sales of W150tn, and W15tn in operating profit) for the second year in a row.

Last year Samsung was the first Korean company to achieve these figures.

So far this year the numbers stand at W117.7tn and W10.95tn respectively, with the peak sales season still to come.

The main factor in the Q3 performance was the company's mobile division, selling 90m handsets in three months, 27m of them Galaxy smartphones.

That helped the mobile division achieve sales revenue of W14.9tn, or almost £8.5bn, and operating profit of £1.4bn.

3D market share slipping

Meanwhile, Samsung's market leadership in the US 3D TV market is coming under more pressure: having held over 55% of the market in the first half of the year, with a peak of 58% in May, its share fell to 49% in September, according to market analysts NPD research.

However, it's still well ahead of its rivals Stateside: September figures showed LG in second place on 19%, followed by Panasonic and Sony on 13% apiece, with Sharp having just 2% of the market.

The figures show Sony staging something of a comeback after falling from its position of vying with Samsung earlier this year and being overtaken by LG: its share is up by 3% month on month.

But the biggest gainer is LG: in January this year Samsung's Korean rival had only 5% of the US 3D TV market, and since then has almost quadrupled its share.

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Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.