Samsung posts $7bn profit

South Korean technology powerhouse Samsung Electronics posted a fourth straight record quarterly profit of $A7.1 billion, with strong sales of its Galaxy range of phones masking sharply lower memory chip sales.

The record run, though, is likely to end in December, with profit growth slowing even more next year as TV markets stagnate and growth in the high-end smartphone market eases from the recent breakneck speed. Profit is expected to grow 16 percent next year down from a forecast 73 percent this year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Samsung said July-September operating profit almost doubled from a year ago to 8.12 trillion won ($7.1 million), in line with its earlier estimate. 

Reporting its results just hours after main rival Apple , Samsung did not detail its third-quarter smartphone shipments, though these are estimated to have soared to 58 million. Apple, which launched its latest iPhone 5 on September 21, said it shipped 26.9 million iPhones in July-September.

Illustrating the might of Samsung's handset business, third-quarter profits from the mobile division more than doubled to 5.63 trillion won ($A4.9 million), as sales of the Galaxy S III, introduced in late May, powered ahead of the iPhone 5 launch. Samsung is estimated to have shipped 18-20 million S IIIs in July-September. The mobile business generated 69 percent of total quarterly profit.

But strong sales of Apple devices - iPhones, iPads and iPods - also help the Korean group, which makes chips, micro-processors and flat screens for the popular gadgets.

Samsung stock traded down 1.3 percent in Seoul early this morning.

Third-quarter profit at Samsung's chip division dropped 28 percent to 1.15 trillion won ($A1 million) as prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips sagged, though a recovery in NAND flash chips, widely used in mobile devices, helped offset the weakness.

The company said on Friday it expected DRAM oversupply to run on into the current quarter, but sees a tight NAND flash memory market.