For Samsung, it's the semiconductor business that really takes up the entire company's profits.
Samsung Electronics released its first-quarter earnings report for 2018, showing operating profit of 15.64 trillion won (about 14.4 billion U.S. dollars), a record high; net profit of 11.6 trillion won (about 10.7 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 52.11% .
In the earnings report, Samsung said that net profit will continue to rise, mainly because demand for memory chips will continue to be strong, but the profitability of its own mobile phone business will continue to decline.
Samsung's chip business achieved operating profit of 11.6 trillion won in the quarter, which is three times that of the mobile phone division. Samsung controls approximately two-thirds of the global DRAM market. The company launched the Galaxy S9 flagship mobile phone in February this year. Its mobile phone business operating profit for the quarter was 3.77 trillion won.
As for Samsung’s display business, its operating profit for the first quarter was 410 billion South Koreans, while its operating profit for consumer electronics business was 280 billion won, which is lower than the 401 billion won for the same period last year.
