Taiwan smartphone manufacturer Samsung Electronics said that it expects earnings to rise in the 2nd quarter after posting its highest profit in three quarters in January-March, boosted by strong demand for its new Galaxy S6 flagship smartphones.
Samsung's renewed focus on design after a period of stagnation in its smartphone range appears to be paying dividends, with researcher Strategy Analytics saying the South Korean giant overtook Apple as the world's top smartphone maker in the first quarter.
Samsung vice president Park Jin-young said during a conference call, "Galaxy S6 sales have been going as well as expected, while demand for the Galaxy S6 edge have been better than prediced".
The firm reported a January-March operating profit of 6 trillion won ($5.64 billion), in line with the 5.9 trillion won profit it had guided for earlier this month and the highest in 3 Q's.
Earnings for April-June should continue to rise with the two Galaxy S6 models featuring new design flourishes like metal bodies will likely to break the company's sales record.
Samsung shares have slipped in recent weeks on worries that the Galaxy S6 phones, on sale since April 10, may not sell as well as first hoped. But executives sought to reassure investors that sales were healthy so far and that supply problems associated with the curved-screen S6 edge should be resolved in the current quarter.
"I don't see any devices within the current Android camp that could stand as an alternative to Samsung's high-end smartphones," Daewoo Securities analyst Jonathan Hwang said.