Samsung on track for 'strong' quarter

South Korean vendor predicts growth, but its five-quarter run of record profits comes to an end

Samsung is hoping for a strong first quarter of 2013 as its smartphone sales continue to increase.

In an earnings guidance for Q1 2013, the South Korean vendor predicted consolidated sales of approximately 52 trillion Korean won and consolidated operating profit of about 8.7 trillion won.

This equates to a 14 per cent rise year on year, but is down seven per cent on the previous quarter.

The results mark the end of five consecutive quarters of record profit for the firm.

The vendor is still clinging onto the top spot of the connected device market according to analyst IDC, but as ever it is being chased heavily by Apple, which snared a 20.3 per cent share of the shipment market, compared with Samsung’s 21.2 per cent.