Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics posted higher sales and profits for the quarter ended September. During the quarter, its cell phone sales hit a record high and the company enjoyed strong demand for semiconductor and flat-panel display products. Compared to last year’s quarter, its operating profit went up 12 percent to USD $2.3 billion and sales rose 10 percent to $18.16 billion.

With the cell phone segment showing impressive growth, sales in Samsung's telecommunications sector jumped 8 percent to $5.59 billion to make it the largest contributor of all its business divisions. Operating profit of this segment advanced 13 percent to $657.17 million.

Samsung sold a record 42.6 million cell phones during the quarter as the slim-line "Ultra edition" 3G handsets gained popularity. The number of handsets sold in the first nine months of the year was 115 million, a million more than last year’s figure.

Samsung plans to launch more 3G handsets in the fourth quarter. Earlier this week, it announced three new phones for the European market including one model that includes audio technology from Bang & Olufsen. Samsung expects total sales for the year to be 157 million units.

Company’s semiconductor business, which is largely focused on DRAM computer memory chips and NAND flash memory chips, had a mixed quarter. Revenues rose 2 percent to $5.47 billion, but operating profits slid 28 percent. Its DRAM business withstood unfavorable conditions in the market because of Samsung's concentration on chips tailored for mobile or graphics applications. Such specialty chips were more insulated from price drops than commodity chips.

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P R Sai is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.