Samsung pips Apple as leader in India's premium smartphone segment

"Compared to the Galaxy S6 series performance previous year, the S7 series is showing as much as 50% higher sales during its opening month of sales in some markets", Counterpoint said in an April 7 report.

Samsung Electronics delivered strong results for the first quarter of 2016, thanks to sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, its flagship smartphones. Both the revenue and operating profit hovered above analysts' estimates of 49.14 trillion won and 5.62 trillion won, compiled earlier by stock information provider FnGuide.

The firm said in a separate filing it will buy back KRW 2 trillion of its own shares in the third instalment of its KRW 11.3 trillion buyback plan.

Industry data suggests Samsung's overall smartphone sales actually fell 1% year-on-year but this compared to a 16% decline for Apple. The South Korean tech titan settled a one-time royalty in the quarter, but it was only less than a percent of the IM revenue, the company said via a press release on April 28, Thursday.

Samsung released its Galaxy S7 early and saw a bump in first-quarter profits but what's next in the mobile market remains unanswered.

It comes after rival Apple reported the first ever year-on-year decline in sales of its iPhone handsets.

Apart from its 5.1 inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display, Galaxy S7 packs the same impressive features as its dual edge sibling, the Galaxy S7 edge, which offers a 5.5-inch display. Despite the drop, the company should be proud since Q1 featured as the first burst sale for Galaxy S7 and S7 edge handsets.

Samsung Electronics has credited a 5.7 per cent increase in first quarter revenues to successful early sales of its new flagship smartphone range, the Galaxy S7.

The Semiconductor business fared relatively well with an operating profit of 2.63 trillion won amid a market recession, maintaining solid earnings by improving the high-value added memory product mix such as V-NAND SSD for servers, and by expanding the supply of System LSI components for premium smartphones. The news was finally good for the beleaguered smartphone, consumer appliance, display and semiconductor company, especially after a run of tough financial quarters over the past year as it fought stiff competition from Apple's iPhones and others.

Source: Samsung pips Apple as leader in India's premium smartphone segment