Samsung has never been one to conform to convention, and it served up yet another reminder early Wednesday morning by discussing a next-generation flagship smartphone that hasn’t even been announced yet. The upcoming Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ aren’t exactly a secret at this point, with just about everything there is to know about the upcoming new devices having leaked over and over again in recent months. Still, consumer electronics companies tend to refrain from discussing new products publicly until they have been announced. Well, that’s what most consumer electronics companies do, at least.
Samsung on Wednesday announced its financial results for the fourth quarter. The company’s massive holiday quarter was highlighted by a record $14.13 billion profit that skyrocketed 64% compared to the year-ago quarter. Full-year profit also reached a new record in 2017, totalling a staggering $50.2 billion.
The company’s smartphone business continues to flourish, but Samsung has another division to thank for its record fourth-quarter earnings and full-year earnings. Samsung’s chip business raked in more than $33 billion last year, representing two-thirds of the company’s total profit in 2017. What’s more, Samsung said that it believes sales of both DRAM and NAND flash memory chips will continue to increase in 2018, with DRAM demand seen growing roughly 20% this year while NAND chip sales rise about 40%.
Samsung expects its smartphone business to continue to thrive in 2018. In fact, the company is so excited about its upcoming new flagship smartphone that it decided to make the device official. “In the first quarter, the company expects the mobile business to improve its earnings, led by an increase in sales of flagship products with the launch of Galaxy S9,” the company said in a press release.
Samsung hasn’t yet announced the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9+ flagship phones, making this mention a bit bizarre. In fact, we still have a month to wait before Samsung unveils its new flagship smartphone duo during its first Unpacked press conference. Samsung’s Galaxy S9 unveiling is scheduled to take place on February 25th during the annual Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are then expected to become available for pre-order beginning March 1st ahead of their release on Friday, March 16th.
