With a massive recall of its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 last year you would think that the Korean tech giant couldn’t wait to see the back of 2016.
Luckily for Samsung, and its shareholders, it doesn’t have to rely on its consumer electronics division to turn a profit.
While the company took a hit of about $5 billion for the year due to the Note issue, it still managed to post a net profit of KRW 9.22 trillion (AU$10.4 billion) thanks to its components division, which produces the parts that go inside its mobile phones, tablets and televisions. Despite this, going into 2017, the company has stated that it expects its earnings to slide in the first quarter of 2017 as it still tries to recover from last year’s disaster.
Although the public face of the company is it snazzy consumer electronics devices, it is also the largest vendor of memory chips in the world and second largest producer of processors. The company said in a press release that the profit was due to the “continuous efforts during past two to three years to strengthen its component business competitiveness by focusing on value-added products,”” which includes the aforementioned componentry.
If you’re a fan of Samsung’s handsets, don’t give up on them yet, says the company. It still sees itself as one of the leading vendors in the market, and while it expects sales to slow during 2017, it will be adding features to its low-end handsets while adding a few more to its premium brands. Features being added to its cheaper smartphones include fingerprint recognition and water resistance, while AI-based services are one of several new elements being added to high-end devices.