Samsung sells 63 million smartphones in three months

Samsung has reported record financial figures, with a huge 76 per cent jump in profits for the last three months of 2012. This is thanks mostly to its range of Galaxy smartphones flying off the shelves.

This follows the record revenue Apple reported recently. So it's boom time for mobiles.

Samsung's net income rose to a record 7.04tn won ($6.6bn, or £4.2bn), which is up from 4.01tn won over the same period last year. Its mobile profits more than doubled over the same period, too.

63 million smartphones sold

Samsung didn't say how many smartphones it sold in the last three months of 2012, but analysts estimate it was around 63 million.

The Korean mobile maker also has big plans for its much-rumoured Galaxy S4 smartphone. It's reportedly ordered 10 million components for the handset, hinting it reckons it can sell that many every month. Which would be quite some feat.

The S3 has sold more than 40 million units worldwide, and Samsung is widely expected to repeat this success with the S4.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 is expected to make its debut at Mobile World Congress at the end of next month, along with its Galaxy Tab 3 range. The S4 isn't expected until April or May.

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Samsung fights back with new Android Galaxy S

Samsung has unveiled the next in its Android-powered line of smartphones – the Galaxy S.

The new phone packs a huge four inch screen with Super AMOLED technology – meaning a wider viewing angle, more vivid colours and a more 'immersive' experience according to Samsung.

The Galaxy S also comes with a 1GHz processor – bringing it up to speed with the likes of the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – which should mean lightning fast loading times.

It's Android 2.1-enabled right out the box, which means some cool extras like Live Wallpapers, and Layar augmented reality browser is included as well.

The camera side of things is taken care of with a 5MP snapper and forward facing video camera, although there's no mention of an LED flash.

Pocket-light

Dimensions-wise we're looking at 64.2 x 122.4 x 9.9mm and a weight of 118g, so not too bad in the pocket at all. Plus Samsung is throwing in either 16GB or 8GB of onboard storage with a microSD card slot for extra movies.

Add in all the natural Android extras – GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 etc - and you're looking at a pretty well-specified phone. Well, it needs to be to erase the memory of the Galaxy and Galaxy Portal, which were pretty snooze-worthy from Samsung.

The bad news is that while this is definitely going to be a worldwide release, there's no UK release date and certainly no UK price as yet for the Samsung Galaxy S – but all will become clear soon, we reckon.

 

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Samsung I9500X name shows up on official site, what is it?

 

Around this time last year we started seeing clues of the existence of a mysterious Samsung I9500 device. Now an entry on Samsung's Global Download Center might rekindle the old rumors.

The entry is for a phone called Samsung GT-I9500X and there are no downloads available for it. The I9500 was rumored to be anything from a Tizen phone to the Galaxy S III - so, is the I9500X an actual Tizen phone or the Galaxy S IV?
Samsung has promised multiple Tizen phones this year and there's a Samsung I9500 Fraser - a Tizen developer device. So it's quite possible the I9500X is another developer phone (or even the same unit).
As for the Galaxy S IV, it's possible but probably too early. So, in the end this could be nothing or it could be a flagship phone of indeterminate OS - there's no way to know for sure just yet.
Thanks to Patrik for sending this in!

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