Samsung on Thursday posted stronger than expected first quarter results thanks in part to the early launch of its new Galaxy S7 smartphone.
The company’s reported 5.25 trillion won ($4.6 billion) in profit handily beat analyst expectations of around 4.7 trillion won.
According to the report, overall sales increased six percent year over year to 49.8 trillion won ($43.4 billion) and overall operating profit of 6.7 trillion won ($5.9 billion) was up 12 percent from the same period last year.
Samsung’s mobile business also performed well, pulling in 26.9 trillion ($23.5 billion) in sales for an increase of eight percent year over year and 12 percent sequentially. The segment also posted an operating profit of 3.9 trillion won ($3.4 billion) that was up 42 percent from the year prior. That figure represented the mobile division’s largest quarterly profit in nearly two years.
Samsung attributed part of its earnings success to the early launch of its new Galaxy S7 flagship handset. Rather than timing its device launch with that of rival Apple in late March, Samsung this year unleashed its new smartphones at the start of the month. The move allowed it to gain a sales advantage by releasing a phone in the absence of new devices from major competitors.
Though Samsung didn’t provide a breakdown of device shipments for the quarter, Strategy Analytics said the positive bump came despite a four percent dip in the company’s year-over-year shipments. According to the Strategy Analytics report, Samsung shipped 79 million smartphones worldwide during the quarter, compared to 82.7 million the year prior.
The drop was substantially less than that suffered by Apple, which saw its shipment figures slide by just over 16 percent during the quarter, according to IDC figures. Both losses were part of an overall dip in smartphone sales for the quarter, Strategy Analytics said.
In the second quarter, Samsung said it is expecting tablet and smartphone demand to remain flat, but said it will focus on the global expansion of S7 sales and maintaining the profitability mid to low-end products.
For the full year 2016, Samsung has forecast growth in smartphone demand to slow year over year while tablet demand is anticipated to decrease. The company said it will focus on pulling in earnings year over year through high-end product sales growth.