In fact, the 77.78 trillion Korean won revenue and KRW 14.12 trillion operating profit posted in this January – March 2022 timeframe are almost perfectly in line with the tech giant’s early April expectations, marking absolutely huge improvements from the 65.39 and 9.38 trillion won reported at the end of last year’s first quarter.
Ultra sales, mass-market 5G success, and a surprise hit
That being said, the aforementioned 3.82 trillion won profit, which by the way equates to around 3 billion US dollars, represents a worrying and somewhat inexplicable decline from the KRW 4.39 trillion earned during Q1 2021 on the back of a lower divisional revenue score.
The built-in S Pen definitely helped the S22 Ultra sell like hotcakes.
That’s especially hard to explain seeing as how Samsung insists on repeatedly citing the “strong” and “solid” sales of the Galaxy S22 Ultra while predictably enough not going into any details whatsoever on actual numbers garnered by the S Pen-wielding giant.
The ultra-high-end Tab S8 lineup can certainly be considered a surprise hit given its decidedly extravagant pricing structure and the modest mainstream success of Tab S7 and S6 models that were never mentioned by name in an earnings report like this one.
Looking ahead to an uncertain future
Unfortunately for Samsung and the mobile industry on the whole, component shortages are “likely to persist” through the end of the year, and the COVID-19 pandemic is not completely over yet, continuing to cause “uncertainties” around manufacturing and distribution in key regions.
Taking all that into consideration, as well as a slight quarter-on-quarter decline predicted for the smartphone market in the April – June timeframe, not to mention various “geopolitical issues” caused by one particularly poor Hitler impersonator in Eastern Europe, Samsung is not prepared to set incredibly ambitious goals for the rest of 2022.
The popular Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 are all but guaranteed to get sequels this year.
