Samsung Q2 net jumps 48 percent on brisk smartphone sales

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of computer memory chips and smartphones, said Friday its second-quarter earnings jumped 48 percent from a year earlier, powered by strong sales of smartphones.

Net profit reached a record 5.2 trillion won (US$4.5 billion) in the April-June period, compared with a net income of 3.5 trillion a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales jumped 21 percent on-year to an all-time high of 47.6 trillion won in the second quarter, while operating profit surged

79 percent to a record 6.7 trillion won, which was in line with Samsung's guidance release earlier this month.

Analysts said the stronger bottom line was driven by robust shipments of Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphone line-up. The Galaxy III, the latest model in the series, saw global sales top the 10 million mark less than two months after its official release in May.

Samsung is estimated to have sold 99 million mobile phones in the second quarter, up 1.8 percent from three months earlier, according to a July 4 report by Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. (Yonhap News)