Samsung Q1 results: phones did well, the rest not so much

Samsung reported its Q1 results - though the company as a whole saw its operating profit decline by a third, the mobile division posted a modest improvement. In fact, the mobile division was the only one that saw an increase in operating profit despite sales increasing for almost all Samsung divisions (except displays).

The telecom division of Samsung posted sales of $9.5 billion, nearly all of which was from selling mobile devices. That‘s a 19% increase year-over-year (YoY) and 8.5% down quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). The operating profit from those sales was $1.3 billion, up 1.2% YoY.

Samsung shipped 70 million mobile devices in Q1 of 2011 (feature phones, smartphones and tablets), a 9% increase YoY and 14% decrease QoQ. However, an year ago smartphones accounted for only 4% of the total units, while now that number is 18% (even during the holiday quarter the smartphone percentage was lower, 14%).

Samsung’s product mix retained strong sales in the high-end (the Samsung Galaxy S bestseller reached 14 million units in total) and the mass-market models got an increase in shipments. Unfortunately, Samsung didn’t provide a breakdown so we don't know how their Android, Bada and Windows Phone smartphones fared.

For the next quarter, Samsung expects a slight increase in sales QoQ, with people looking to replace their old high-end phones and increased competition in the tablet market.

You can get some more detailed numbers and info on Samsung’s other divisions here (PDF).