April 17, 2006

Samsung Electronics reported net income in the first quarter of $1.96 billion, a modest increase from the $1.6 billion net income the electronics giant reported in its year-ago quarter.

Overall, mobile phones and chips represented about two-thirds of Samsung’s reported revenue, which was $14.5 billion for the quarter.

The handset vendor shipped 29 million phones in the first quarter, an increase from the 24.5 million in the year-ago quarter and a slight increase over fourth quarter shipments of 27.2 million.

Samsung officials said that the rising value of the Korean won raised the price of exports, slowing quarterly growth and driving down first-quarter operating profit by 25 percent. The vendor’s net income rose about 26 percent due to non-operating income.

Samsung reports its quarterly earnings according to South Korean accounting standards, limiting the company’s financial disclosures to Korean production and exports.

Source: RCR