Samsung is a household name in many parts of the globe, including Kenya. The South Korean electronics company has churned out devices, including smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, chips, name them, for decades. This development was cut short last year when its profitable segment, the mobile division, was hit by a battery hitch in its 2016 Galaxy Note 7 flagship phone. It was serious issue that forced Samsung to recall the device, and this meant that it had to incur losses in a segment that mints a significant amount of revenue. It seems, however, that Samsung turned this setback to its advantage as the company has managed to record a jump in revenue a threefold ($12.3 billion) compared to what it recorded in early 2017.
On Friday of October 13, the Asian electronics manufacturer reported that its quarterly operating profit had probably tripled from a year earlier. That increase has apparently surpassed what industry experts predicted as they heavily relied on the downfall of the Note 7 and slow adoption of devices that has been associated to minimal profit margins. These gains have been attributed to a soaring demand for larger memory chips.
OEMs are in need of memory, and with a drop in the rate of supply, the demand for these components has surpassed expectation, which has caused a rise in their pricing. Equally critical is the strong global demand for DRAM chips, which is predicted to sprint past supply even in 2018, allegedly. Also, Samsung owns the game in the manufacture of OLED screens, which it has equipped on its flagship devices since it entered the Android ecosystem from the Galaxy S days back in 2010. In fact, they are so good at it that Apple’s iPhone X (ten) will be equipped with panels manufactured by – you guessed it; Samsung. However, and according to Reuters, Samsung had anticipated this deficit and is in the process of erecting new plants to churn out more chips and displays.
Another critical source of revenue is the company’s S-Pen equipped Note 8 that is available on local store shelves for a pocket-emptying KES 105K price tag. Regardless of the price, the Note 8 is making its way to consumers’ pockets in high numbers, a feat that can be backed up by Samsung’s assertion of the highest Note 8 pre-orders ever registered.
We will give you our take on the Note 8 once we get hold of one in coming days. However, we are fairly certain that its 12MP dual-cam system does not take double the amount of pictures nor does it superimpose images to give a 24MP shot.
