Samsung Sold 35 Million Smartphones in Q4, Profit At 5.2 Trillion Won or $4.5 Billion

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Just like Apple, Samsung had a tremendous holiday quarter, although the Cupertino-based company will surely surpass the South Korean giant when it comes to overall generated profit. While we wait for Apple to announce its numbers we have more details on Samsung’s performance for its last quarter in 2011.

Samsung reported a quarterly profit of 5.2 trillion won, or $4.5 billion, for the period, which is up 73% compared to Q4 2010, 22% more than Q3 2011 and 0.5 billion won more than forecast. A large part of that cash comes from the company’s mobile division which is currently thriving at the expense of other companies including HTC, Nokia or RIM – but not Apple, and that’s an important point to note.

Samsung has apparently shipped 35 million smartphones in Q4 2011, a record number so far for the company, up from the 27.8 million smartphones sold in the previous quarter. In Q3 Samsung surpassed Apple as the top smartphone vendor in the world, as the Cupertino-based company only reported sales of over 17.07 million iPhones. It’s important to remember that many potential iPhone customers decided not to buy an iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS during the quarter ending in September as they were waiting for the iPhone 4S/5 at the time.

In fact Apple is expected to report over 30 million iPhone sales for Q4, with the number going as high as 35 million. No matter if Apple surpasses Samsung in overall smartphone shipments or not, we’ll point out the obvious difference between the two companies. Samsung, despite selling 35 million handsets in the Christmas quarter, does not have a true flagship device to fight the iPhone 4S or even the iPhone 4 when it comes to total sales. The company is relying on a plethora of Android and bada phones, from entry-level to high-end, and most of them part of the Galaxy family to get more market share than Apple. But that approach fails when it comes to generating profits.

On the other hand Apple, only sells three iPhone models right now, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 – currently the best-sold iPhone in Apple’s line-up – and the recently released iPhone 4S – a device that will blow the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus out of the water when it comes to Q4 sales. And with those three handsets, two of them launched in 2009 and 2010, the company gets a lot more cash than Samsung does.

Why is the comparison between these two giants important when reporting Samsung’s Q4 2011 earnings? Because it puts things in perspective. Samsung’s numbers alone, especially those in the mobile and tablet market, don’t mean anything unless they’re compared with Apple’s financial performance for the same quarter. Because, like it or not, Apple still sets the tone in the mobile business. The best example is the recently released Samsung iPhone 3G Galaxy Ace Plus pictured above, which best describes the current relationship between the two companies.

Let’s also not forget that Apple and Samsung fight a fierce patent-based battle in 10 countries across 4 continents, a battle that’s temporarily won by Apple, and it will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the coming months, once more verdicts come in.

What smartphone have you purchased this holiday? An iPhone or a Samsung device?