It was a better-than-expected performance for South Korea's tech giant Samsung Electronics in the third quarter.... as rising sales of its brand-new smartphones helped boost its earnings... despite falling chip prices.<br />Yoon Jung-min reports.<br />Samsung Electronics saw its operating profits rise on-quarter in the third quarter,... though profits were sharply down from the same period last year.<br />According to its finalized earnings report on Thursday,... the South Korean tech giant posted operating profits of some 6-point-7 billion U.S. dollars in the July-to-September period.<br />That's down 56 percent on-year,... but up nearly 18 percent compared to the second quarter.<br />Sales amounted to some 53-billion dollars,... down more than 5 percent from a year ago, but up 10 percent from the previous quarter.<br />The company saw its operating profits decline on-year as its semiconductor business saw profits fall due to lower memory chip prices.<br />However,... overall profits picked up on-quarter thanks to increased sales of new gadgets.<br />Samsung's mobile communications business performed better than market expectations,... with its earnings jumping to more than 2-point-5 billion dollars on the back of the release of the Galaxy Note10 in August.<br />Samsung has also outdone its global rivals in 60 countries, particularly in Europe,... thanks to rising sales of its brand-new smartphone model.<br />Market watchers expect its latest release of foldable smartphones to contribute to the company's earnings for next year,... based on the expansion of 5G networks.<br />Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.<br />
