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Whoa - For a moment I was convinced $7.4B was revenue. That's profit which is impressive to say the least. Next somewhat unexpectedly 2/3rd of the profits are
by blinkingled 14y ago
Whoa - For a moment I was convinced $7.4B was revenue. That's profit which is impressive to say the least.
Next somewhat unexpectedly 2/3rd of the profits are from mobile division - Smartphone sales mainly. Wonder if all the parts Samsung supplies to Apple make them so little profit (they sell displays, DRAM, Flash and make Apple's SoC for them) that they could just stop doing that and their bottomline would be hardly touched.
I am sure I am misreading something here - or may be margins are just razor thin in everything Samsung sells to Apple.
- hkmurakami 14y agoSupplying Apple those components brings scale to the production process that is leveraged in supplying their own handheld devices, so I'd venture to conjecture that without this business with Apple, Samsung's overall profits will fall as well just in their mobile division, as costs rise.
- blinkingled 14y agoI doubt it would amount to very much. They sold 58 million SmartPhones vs Apple's 26 million iPhones and 14 million iPads or so and Samsung is just one of many Apple suppliers.
- hkmurakami 14y agoThe key is that they effectively double their foundry output by supplying Apple their chips, which means that every one of their 58 million smartphones can have a larger margin. That's huge.
- nandemo 14y agoNote that Samsung is a huge conglomerate. I suppose this is news is posted here because some many people on HN tend to view Samsung is an "Apple rival" (and for some odd reason a lot of people "root" for tech companies), but Samsung is more like a Korean version of what General Electric used to be. According to Wikipedia, Samsung's revenue in 2011 was U$247 billion. That's about the nominal GDP of Hong Kong or Israel.
- kitsune_ 14y agoAmen, when the tech press talks about Samsung it usually talks about Samsung Electronics. I find it somewhat aggravating. Samsung builds ships, skyscrapers, it owns departments stores and provides life insurances. The conglomerate is a complex maze of interconnected companies. The ownership structure is very complicated. There is an excellent article about it in The Economist.
- lostlogin 14y agoI've read about their opaque structure before, and the relationship between big business and the South Korean government. Dark and murky. It's rather fascinating. Wish I could remember the article source.
- richworks 14y agoIs this the article you are talking about? : http://www.economist.com/node/15816702 http://www.economist.com/node/15816702
- nandemo 14y ago(sorry, couldn't edit out the typos)