Samsung Electronics said Friday that stronger-than-expected sales of its Galaxy smartphones sent operating profits up 90 percent in the latest quarter, but analysts warned its results could take a hit in the coming months as it books legal damages owed to Apple.
The South Korean electronics giant reported an operating profit of 8.1 trillion won (€5.6 billion) for the July-September period, almost double the 4.25 trillion won it made a year ago. That beat an average analyst estimate of 7.58 trillion won during the quarter compiled by Bloomberg.
The company released the numbers, which did not include its net profit or breakdown for each business group, ahead of its official earnings release on 26 October.
Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III smartphone sold over 20 million units since its launch in July and experienced a further bump following the release of the iPhone 5 as curious consumers decided not to take the plunge with the sixth generation of Apple’s iconic smartphone.
In August, a US jury ordered Samsung to pay more than $1 billion in damages to Apple for infringing its design and software patents. Apple subsequently asked for a permanent injunction against sale of Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S III. Counter-suits were promptly filed.
Bans
One company feeling decidedly more relieved lately would be Motorola Mobility, after a court in Mannheim, Germany, ruled it did not not infringe on a Microsoft radio interface patent.
Microsoft had accused Google-owned Motorola Mobility of infringing on a patent that describes a radio interface layer that provides a level of abstraction between the radio and software on a cell phone. This patented technology allows applications on the phone to access the phonebook entries, restrict access to data and access file and message storage among many other functions, according to the patent.
Microsoft sued Motorola in Germany, asking the company to pay licensing fees on its Android-based smartphones as rivals HTC and Samsung Electronics have done.
Microsoft already has three injunctions against Motorola in Germany for infringing an SMS patent, a FAT file system patent and a patent describing a method for handling communication between a keyboard and an application.
The two earlier German injunctions are being enforced and the third one will be soon. One of the rulings included a sales ban on the Motorola Atrix, the Droid Razr and the Droid Razr Maxx.
Microsoft also has an injunction against Motorola in the US, where the International Trade Commission ruled that Motorola infringes on an ActiveSync patent. That ruling prevents Motorola from importing infringing products into the US.
Samsung has had its own problems in Germany, where successful legal actions by Apple forced a redesign of it’s Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet, which was rebranded as the 10.1n. The same product had a temporary ban in the US.
IDG News Service
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