Samsung's quarterly profits jumped 14 per cent year-on-year following the early release of its new Galaxy smartphones.
The company's earnings rose to 5.3 trillion won (£3.2 billion) in the period January to March. Sales across the firm rose six per cent to 49.8 trillion won (£30 billion).
A good start to 2016 is a boost to the South Korean firm after poor results last year. Samsung lost more than £5.4bn of its market value in 2015 as it found itself increasingly squeezed by the likes of Apple and Chinese firm Xiaomi.
The better-than-expected first quarter results can be attributed to the early launch of its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones in March. The launch, a month earlier than previous years, gave Samsung a head-start on its competitors.
Analyst data suggests Samsung's overall smartphone sales fell one per cent year-on-year, compared to Apple's 16 per cent decline. Its mobile division posted its biggest quarterly profit in nearly two years, rising 42 per cent year-on-year to 3.9 trillion won (£2.4 billion).
Samsung's positive performance came off the back of Apple's first-ever drop in iPhone sales. Apple reported a net income of $10.5 billion (£7.19 billion) for the first quarter of 2016, down from $13.5bn (£9.25 billion) year-on-year.
Despite words of warning from some analysts, Apple's profits and revenue remain formidable. Sales hit $50.56 billion (£34.39 billion) during the first quarter of 2016; for the same period last year the company had sales of $58 billion (£38 billion).
Applehttps://www.wired.co.uk/topic/apple boss Tim Cook said the company was happy with its performance and that it had performed well "in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds".
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
