BRANDS PHONE

Samsung hasn’t released its full Q2 financial report yet, but it unveiled some salient details on its performance. Largely thanks to the Galaxy line of Android smartphones, Samsung's profit reached a record $5.9 billion (up 79% year on year). Executives expect it to grow even further, 36% quarter-on-quarter for Q3.

Samsung's mobile division is responsible for over 70% of the company's earnings. In the second quarter of this year, the Korean giant sold around 50 million smartphones and expects profits to have doubled, reaching $3.87 billion.

One Samsung exec predicts that sales of Galaxy S III flagship will hit the 19 million mark in Q3, growing in the absence of a new iPhone.

When the new Apple smartphone inevitably comes, the growth of the Samsung's mobile division is expected to slow down, but the Korean company's semiconductor business will benefit from the launch as Samsung provides screens and chips for Apple's gadgets (and maybe even an Exynos-based quad-core chipset for the next iPhone).

Samsung's biggest worry at the moment is the Euro crisis - Europe is the biggest market for Samsung electronics and the fall of the euro compared to the Korean won cuts into its profits.

Apple has just been granted a temporary injunction against Galaxy Nexus sales in the United States. US Court ruled against Samsung in the patent case, which was initiated in February, but gets its first ruling just now.

Judge Lucy Koh decided that Samsung has infringed four patents, although one specific patent weighs in towards this decision - patent number 8,086,604 ('604). It basically refers to a device being able to search multiple sources through a single interface (Apple's Siri).

The rest of the patents Apple accuses Samsung (and Google) of infringing are patent 5,946,647 (actionable linking), patent 8,046,721 (slide-to-unlock) and patent 8,074,172 (touch screen word suggestion).
For the injunction to go into effect, Apple must post a bond worth $96 million. It's highly likely the final judgement of the US Court to be of the same kind, provided Samsung isn't able to prove it hasn't infringed on the patents in question.

The Court has ruled that if the Galaxy Nexus availability continues it would cause irreparable harm to Apple in the form of lost market share. This was a result of Google highlighting its "Quick Search Box" in Android as "core user feature on Android" ergo on the Galaxy Nexus too.

Remember the Galaxy S III that exploded not so long ago? After the accident in Ireland, Samsung started an investigation to see what caused it and it's back with the results.
 

The company even contracted Fire Investigations UK (FIUK) to help them get to the bottom of it and they've concluded that it's a external heat source, presumably a domestic microwave oven.

Here's what the report states:

The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave

After the statement, the owner of the overheated Galaxy S III has since brought more light as to how it all happened and has even retracted his accusations towards Samsung. According to him, the phone was exposed to water and "another person" had been trying to mend it.

Thanks for the tip, gsmsina