Samsung smartphone branch made more profit in 2016 despite Note 7 debacle

Samsung made more profit from the sale of smartphones in the past quarter than in the comparable quarter of 2015. Despite the Note 7 debacle, the South Korean manufacturer also managed to book a higher profit for the whole year than a year earlier.

In the presentation of its quarterly figures, Samsung announced that the Mobile division’s turnover in 2016 totaled 100.3 trillion Korean Won and that the profit amounted to 10.8 trillion won. Converted that is 80 billion and 8.6 billion euros. A year earlier, turnover was slightly higher at 82.6 billion euros, but the profit of 8.1 billion euros was slightly lower.

According to Samsung, the success of the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge has made up for the losses of the Note 7. Despite the fact that Samsung had no new flagship in the shops in the past quarter, the smartphone division booked a turnover of 18.8 billion euros and a profit of 2 billion euros in the last three months of last year. Turnover is also slightly lower, but profit is slightly higher than in the same quarter a year earlier.

This year, Samsung says it wants to “continue to innovate in the field of hardware and software and put consumer safety first.” To avoid a similar scenario as with the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung presented a plan on Monday for better control of batteries in smartphones.

In the quarterly figures, Samsung also reports that it wants to strengthen its market leadership in the smartphone market by adding ‘innovative functions’ to high-end models. The South Korean manufacturer has not yet announced which functions these are.

Samsung expects to do good business this year with the production of flexible OLED screens. Samsung states that smartphones with innovative form factor will come on the market that will make use of such panels. According to rumors, Samsung itself will present a foldable smartphone in the summer. However, Samsung also supplies screens to other manufacturers.

All Samsung divisions together recorded a turnover of 42.3 billion euros in the past quarter and made a profit of 7.4 billion euros. These figures are also better than the comparable quarter a year earlier. According to Samsung, this is due to the good sales of OLED and LCD panels, nand memory, chip production and the position of the dollar against the Korean won.

In the first quarter of 2017, Samsung expects to achieve lower turnover than a year earlier. This is partly due to the high marketing expenditure of the Samsung Mobile division.