Samsung profits more than double despite Note 7 debacle

Samsung’s profits for the final quarter of 2016 were over double the same period in the previous year, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer said on Tuesday in a stock market filing.

“Net profit for the quarter rose to 7.1 trillion won (6.13 billion dollars) on the back of rising prices of display panels and memory chips.

“Profits for the final quarter of 2015 were 3.22 trillion won,’’ Samsung said.

Mobile phone sales were also up due to positive sales of Samsung’s premium smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge.

The profits came in spite of the debacle surrounding 2016’s launch of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and its subsequent withdrawal.

The Galaxy Note 7, which was launched in August 2016, was finally discontinued altogether in October following a global recall.

However, the company failed to find a solution to reports of the phones’ batteries catching fire then.

The company said at a media event in Seoul that the design and production of the Note 7’s batteries caused the mobile phones to catch fire