D. J. Koh, head of Samsung’s mobile business, explains Sunday during a press conference in Korea what caused the Note 7 to overheat.
For Samsung, it’s not all about the Galaxy Note 7 — at least not when it comes to financial results.
Even as it faces a hit of more than $5 billion (spread across several quarters) from the death of its flawed phone , Samsung managed to post its best operating profit in three years. What it’s benefiting from is strong demand for components that go inside mobile phones, TVs and other devices.
Still, Samsung warned its overall earnings should slide in the first quarter as its mobile business faces higher marketing costs and as it sells fewer TVs. Its components businesses should continue to grow, though.
Samsung may be best known as the world’s biggest maker of phones and TVs, but it’s also a major player in the semiconductor industry. It’s the world’s largest vendor of memory chips and the second biggest processor maker overall after Intel. Along with designing processors for some of its own devices, Samsung manufactures processors created by other companies, like wireless chip giant Qualcomm.
“For 2016, Samsung achieved solid results despite the Note 7 discontinuation in the second half as a result of continuous efforts during past two to three years to strengthen its component business competitiveness by focusing on value-added products” and advancing its DRAM and V-NAND memory businesses, as well as its OLED display operations, the company said.
The operating income for Samsung’s semiconductor business soared 77 percent in the fourth quarter.
