Currently the world's largest memory chip and smartphone manufacturer, the company said that while it expected a recovery in global technology device demand it remained cautious pointing to ongoing challenges from both supply chain issues and COVID-19.
Next generation 5G smartphones are set to account for more than half of all smartphone sales in the market in 2022, according to Kim Sung-koo, Vice President of the company's mobile business and Samsung is looking to capture demand from people looking to replace existing models with 5G devices.
Samsung currently has around 20% of the global smartphone market.
While highlighting its determination to grow its 5G market share Samsung also reported its best fourth quarter results in 4 years, with revenues ahead 24 per cent while there was a 53% rise in fourth-quarter operating profit to $11.6billion.
Profits at the company's chip business, its largest division, more than doubled from the same quarter a year ago.
Despite a strong performance profits were lower than the market had expected due to conservative shipments of memory chips, R&D costs and one-off year-end bonuses.
Samsung said that the figures were a result of a decision not to push aggressively to expand sales, but rather to prioritise profits over volume.
"Samsung seems to have considered its low inventory of memory chips, lack of clean room space to expand production in 2022 and the dip in memory chip prices last quarter, and decided not to sell as much," said Park Sung-soon, analyst at Cape Investment & Securities. "This lean toward profitability over volume could continue in the first and second quarters, depending on market conditions."
