Smartphone sales drove Samsung Electronics to a 7 percent rise in year-on-year revenue (to KRW41.87 trillion/US$37.6 billion) and a 13 percent increase in net profit (KRW3.42 trillion/US$3.06 billion) for the fourth quarter. However, it was the most difficult three months of a record-setting year and only Samsung’s telecom division showed improvement against results from earlier in 2010 and over 2009. Indeed, two of the company’s four divisions – memory chips and LCDs – experienced substantially smaller profits in the October-to-December period than they did earlier in the year while the division that makes TVs, computers and other finished consumer goods experienced a second straight quarterly loss. Samsung’s telecom unit registered a record quarterly operating profit of KRW1.44 trillion for the period, up 38 percent year-on-year. Fourth quarter revenue for the division reached KRW12.11 trillion, compared with KRW10.17 trillion a year earlier. The South Korean vendor sold 80.7 million mobile device units for the quarter, up 17 percent year-on-year, cementing its position as the market’s second-largest device manufacturer. Total sales for the year were 280 million units, registering growth of 23 percent and outperforming the overall market.

In a statement, Samsung reiterated its achievement of 10 million sales to date of its flagship Galaxy S Android smartphone amid plans to introduce a successor during the first half of 2011 (featuring “a dual-core processor and Super Amoled display”). No sales figures were provided for the Android-powered Galaxy Tab (launched towards the end of last year), with the company noting only that it “attracted strong year-end demand” and promising to launch a range of new tablet devices this year. A ZDNet report today puts Tab sales at two million in the first three months though. In the first quarter of 2011 the company expects mobile device sales to “contract slightly due to weak seasonal demand” but forecasts “high single-digit sales growth for the year overall, driven by the fast-expanding smartphone and tablet segments.” It plans to sell 60 million smartphones this year, double that of 2010. Samsung shares were up 1.1 percent at KRW1,005,000 (US$902) following the announcement, sharply outperforming the broader market’s 0.3 percent drop.