Samsung ships 52M handsets in Q2

Samsung Electronics posted strong second-quarter results, matching its South Korean competitor LG Electronics with growth in handset sales. The company, which makes a wide range of electronics, said it expects its handset division to continue to outperform the overall cell phone market.

On a company-wide basis, Samsung reported a net profit of $1.8 billion, up 5.2 percent from $1.71 billion a year ago and up 65.6 percent from the $495 million it posted in the first quarter of this year. The company said it shipped 52.3 million handsets in the quarter, up 14 percent over both the year-ago quarter and the first quarter. The average selling price for its phones rose slightly--2 percent above the first quarter--to $124.

Samsung pegged its current worldwide handset market share at around 20 percent, and said it expects strong market share growth in the coming quarters.

The company offered a somewhat brighter outlook for the overall handset market than its rivals: a quarter-over-quarter increase in demand of around 5 percent, with a focus on smartphones and touchscreen handsets. Samsung predicted it would ship more than 200 million handsets by the end of the year, and noted it would launch several flagship phones in the second half, including its first phone based on Google's Android platform, the Galaxy.    

For more:
- see this AFP article
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see Samsung's investor presentation

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