When the verdict of the trial between Apple and Samsung was delivered, there was speculation that the result would drastically affect Samsung’s sales and the company’s fate as a whole, but that didn’t turn out to be true as Samsung’s quarterly profits have broken all previous records for most profit earned by the company. The Korean giant recorded an operational profit of nearly $7.3 billion, which is a 90% increase over the same period a year ago. This will be the fourth consecutive quarter in which Samsung Electronics is reporting a profit and most of it is because of the growing sales of its Galaxy line of devices. The legal battle between it and Apple seems to have had no effect on the company’s sales. In fact, analysts report that sales have actually increased since the launch of the iPhone 5.
The Korean company beat its own expectations by a considerable margin. Analysts were hoping for profits of around 7.6 trillion Won but the actual figure was 8.1 trillion, while sales totaled 52 trillion won against an estimate of 51.6 million Won. Samsung Electronics is the world’s largest in terms of revenues and said that 63% of its operating profit in the second quarter was on account of its mobile business.
The company is doing exceptionally well after the legal catastrophe and its shares are up 7% from the day of the verdict. A recent revelation suggested that Apple offered a licensing deal to Samsung before the trial. This involved Apple asking Samsung to license its 3G/UMTS patents at a FRAND royalty base at a price of 33 cents per every device sold. Both companies couldn’t agree to the terms and the deal never went through but experts believe that this might have softened the blow on Samsung during the actual trial.
The future of the two companies is still tied with the courts as each one continues to add more devices to their respective lists of infringing devices. Apple claims that the Galaxy S III also infringes on some of its patents while Samsung says that the new iPhone has ripped off technology that Samsung owns patents for. There is still quite a while to go before the actual court sessions begin and things may change but it is unlikely either company will budge. Samsung is also appealing the judgment against it in an attempt to get the order revoked on grounds of juror bias.
