Samsung Electronics on Friday reported a record quarterly profit boosted by growing smartphone sales and a surge in earnings at its display panel division. Samsung Electronics announced revenues of 57.46 trillion won on a consolidated basis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013, a 9-percent increase from the previous quarter. Consolidated operating profit for the quarter reached 9.53 trillion won, representing a 9-percent increase on quarter, while consolidated net profit for the same quarter was 7.77 trillion won.

In contrast to the first half of last year, revenue was up 19 percent and operating profit increased 51 percent in the first half of 2013 as profitability in the components business improved.

Highlighting the quarterly performance, growth remained steady in high-end smartphone and premium television businesses. Most noticeably, a growth spurt in shipments for OLED panels for smartphones and high consumer demand for air conditioners spurred growth.

Led by the launch of GALAXY S4, smartphone shipments and revenue increased from the March quarter. Samsung expects the strong growth streak for the smartphone market to continue in the third quarter albeit at a slower pace.

The components business improved both in terms of revenue and operating profits from a quarter earlier due to a higher demand for mobile device-related parts. However, overall sales of logic chips declined due to lower mobile application processor shipments.

Escalated investments in R&D and in distribution channels, as well as expenses on new product launches have dampened wider gains for IT & Mobile Communications (IM) Division, which encompasses the Mobile Communications, Networks, and Digital Imaging businesses.

"Entering into a typically strong season for the IT industry, we expect earnings to continue to increase. However, we cannot overlook delayed economic recovery in Europe and risks from increased competition for smartphone and other set products," said Robert Yi, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.

Mr. Yi added, "We expect to improve profit yields in the second half due to high-margin, differentiated components products, as well as gains stemming from increased smartphone and TV shipments."

The Display Panel segment?s operating profit jumped 46 percent on quarter to 1.12 trillion won thanks to strong demand for high value-added panels for IT and TV panels sized 60-inch and over. A mid- to low-end TV lineup targeting emerging markets and a range of premium TV offerings were credited for the Visual Display business? earnings. As for the next quarter, uncertainties over Europe?s economy and Chinese subsidies for electronics goods could possibly hinder growth.

For OLED panels, positive growth for high-end smartphone displays is expected to be maintained in the second half. To ensure continued momentum, Samsung will concentrate on offering differentiated smartphone displays through technological competitiveness, including flexible display technology.

Samsung Electronics plans to spend a record total of 24 trillion won, an increase of over 1 trillion won from the previous year. This amount may increase depending on market conditions in the second half and the outlook for next year.

The Semiconductor business will invest 13 trillion won, while the Display Panel segment will inject 6.5 trillion in capex. The increase in spending is aimed at enhancing Samsung?s competitive edge in DRAM, NAND and System LSI products.

Samsung?s Semiconductor businesses - including Memory and System LSI - posted 8.68 trillion won in consolidated revenue. With a differentiated product mix including server and mobile DRAMs, Samsung was able to improve sales with high- performance, high-density chips. The NAND flash memory segment remained competitive through process migration to 10-nanometer class process technology.

Samsung will try to ramp up sales of application processors (AP) with 28- nanometer process technology and high-resolution image sensors. Demand for the components is expected to grow as mobile devices needing more processing power roll out into market in the remaining quarters.

By diversifying its product portfolio and consumer base, and by gearing up development of 20 nm-class and 14 nm-class process technology, Samsung aims to achieve a stable level of growth.

The IT & Mobile Communications division - consisting of Mobile Communications, Networks and Digital Imaging businesses - posted operating profits of 6.28 trillion won on 35.54 trillion won in revenue for the June quarter.

Driven by Samsung?s flagship GALAXY S4 and the GALAXY Note 8.0, which have been well received by the market, quarterly revenue for the mobile sector climbed 9 percent compared with the prior quarter.

Looking ahead, Samsung smartphone sales are expected to pick up in the third quarter and outperform global market forecasts. Smartphones will grow to account for over 70 percent of the company?s mobile phone shipments in the third quarter due to the strengthening mid- to low-end mobile market. Growth momentum in the July-September quarter will remain on course, although at a slightly reduced pace.

In the case of tablet PCs, Samsung will post growth in the mid-10 percent range with the introduction of new tablets. Shipments of tablets will jump to a little over 30 percent on-quarter, outpacing the market.

Samsung is also looking to improve profitability in IM through its lineup of mid- to high-end hybrid tablet-laptop devices such as ATIV Q and wider adoption of LTE mobile telecommunication technology.