In a positive sign for the technology industry, bellwether Samsung yesterday said it likely earned bumper sales and a record operating profit in Q2.
The company estimates a quarterly operating profit of between 4.8 trillion won (€3.1 billion) and 5.2 trillion won, on revenue of 36 trillion won to 38 trillion won.
While the firm didn’t give any reasons for the upswing, analysts widely attribute the increase to higher memory chips prices caused by a recent shortage, FT.com said.
Samsung is the world's largest producer of memory chips, which are in hot demand due to rising consumer appetite for smartphones and tablet PCs.
But those same analysts expect earnings to decline in the second half of the year, as Europe’s debt crisis limits consumer demand.
Samsung nevertheless is expected to report record sales of 153 trillion won for the full year, FT.com said.
Profit margins may be down, though, due to the company's weak presence in the high-end smartphone business, analysts warned.
Yet Samsung seems to have stronger momentum than Nokia, which last month downgraded its profit forecast for the second time this year, and this month admitted it was no longer the smartphone leader.