Samsung overtakes Apple as world’s biggest phone maker

Samsung Electronics is now the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, memory chips and most profitable tech firm, going by its record quarterly earnings released today,

The figures show that the South Korean tech giant is on course to overtake Apple as the world’s most profitable tech.

The firm said it's operating profit soared a forecast-beating 72.9 percent from the previous year to 14.07 trillion won ($12.6 billion), compared with consensus forecasts of $10.6 billion for US titan Apple, which is due to report next week.

However, Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, told AFP:

 “Samsung has surpassed its rivals for now but Apple usually sees little fluctuation in its profits whereas Samsung’s profits fluctuate largely on memory chip prices.”

Samsung has been trying to overcome an embarrassing recall last year of its flagship Galaxy Note 7
smartphone over exploding batteries, which cost it billions of dollars and dealt a blow to its reputation.