Samsung is expected to make a lot of money this quarter, but its smartphones could do way better
While Samsung's name tends to instantly be associated with smartphones or TVs by many people, the Korea-based tech giant is involved in numerous other industries and businesses, deriving a large chunk of its overall profits of late from chip manufacturing, for instance.
Despite some highly publicized recent global shortages that may have contributed among others to the Galaxy S21 FE cancellation, analysts expect that particular division to generate the bulk of the company's Q3 financial gains... yet again.
This year's third calendar quarter is not technically over yet, but it's clearly not too early for pundits to anticipate a July - September 2021 operating profit haul of 16.3 trillion Korean Won ($13.8 billion), no less than 10 trillion KRW of which could come from the semiconductor division alone.
Although both of those numbers are up from Q3 2020 and Q2 2021, Samsung's head honchos might not have a whole lot to smile about when looking at the latest results of several other key business segments. Most notably, smartphones are projected to yield an operating profit of between 3.5 and 3.8 trillion won, down from KRW 4.45 trillion during the same timeframe of last year.
For what it's worth, the 5G-enabled Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 released in August seem to have crucially contributed to a slightly higher mobile profit score than the KRW 3.24 trillion earned between April and June 2021. Shipments of "low-to-mid priced" handsets are also described as solid, but while Samsung's total smartphone sales are expected to grow sequentially from around 58 million in Q2 to 69 million units, that latter result is a far cry from what the company racked up back in Q3 2020.
According to several different research firms, roughly 80 million Galaxy smartphones were sold worldwide in the July - September period of last year, which suggests the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 may not prove quite as successful as some of their Note-branded forerunners after all.
It remains to be seen if this means the mobile industry will get a new global leader for the full quarter, which continues to feel unlikely.
Overall, Samsung is forecasted to report a mind-blowing 75.1 trillion won in total consolidated revenue over the next few weeks for Q3 2021, improving its already impressive Q3 2020 tally by 12.2 percent. Meanwhile, the aforementioned KRW 16.3 trillion profit result would mark an absolutely massive 31.9 percent surge from last year... before likely declining during the final three months of this year due to a fall in the prices of various essential components included in the semiconductor division.
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