Samsung believes that foldable OLED displays and Bixby will help in pushing growth for the company in the year 2018. This they said in their Q4 earnings report which was released today. According to the company, it would apply state-of-the-art technology such as the foldable OLED screens so that it can be able to stand out amongst competitors. Samsung further stated its intentions to enter into other related ventures of AI and smart devices by widening the scope of its Bixby voice assistant.
There have been a lot of stories going on about phones that fold into all-in-one full-screen tablets with various patterns filed by different companies manufacturing phones including LG, Microsoft, and Samsung; though there haven’t been any as a result of the unavailability of foldable displays. Samsung had stated sometime before that it had hopes of introducing a foldable phone later this year admitting that there were hurdles to cross. With Samsung endorsing foldable displays as a new source of revenue, we may be coming close to seeing the Samsung foldable devices become a reality.
Samsung posted record earnings for the fourth quarter of 2017 which was driven by its chip-making business and selling of its OLED displays for smartphones, most of which are found on iPhone X and are very profitable. In Q4 of 2017, Samsung made $14.24 billion in operating profit and posted a profit of $50.43 billion for the whole year. Its chip manufacturing arm was the highest earner thus making Samsung the world’s largest chipmaker by revenue.
Its earnings in mobile devices reduced a bit because of a jump in marketing costs. Total smartphone shipments also declined although those of flagship phones like the Galaxy Note 8 enlarged from the last quarter. The mobile business posted a sum of $2.26 billion in operating profit.
Samsung is hoping to improve its earnings in the first quarter of this year. It intends to do so by selling its flagship mobile devices, including the launch of the Galaxy S9 and S9+ next month. Samsung also expects the sales of its ultra large-size TVs to grow continuously, with demand motivated by sports events comprising the Winter Olympics. The company also intends to increase its network solutions for 5G commercialization to Korea, the US, and Japan.
