Dive Brief:

• Samsung reported sales of US $45.1 billion for the quarter, up 9% over a year ago, and net profit of 5.5 trillion won, up 29%.
• The increase was attributed primarily to strong demand for Samsung's chips and flat-panel displays, said the company.
• Samsung said it saw a big jump in sales after it sped up the launch of its Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 series phones in an attempt to beat rival Apple.

Dive Insight:

IDC said it estimates Samsung shipped 84.5 million smartphones during the quarter, while Apple shipped 48 million iPhones.

Samsung makes chips and displays that it uses in its own products and also sells to competitors. Strong demand from smartphone rivals helped to hike sales of Samsung memory chips and OLED display panels.

Given Samsung’s recent success in leapfrogging Apple, some speculate that the company’s next handset will be launched a month earlier than expected in January.

In August, Samsung said it had developed the world’s largest storage drive, with 16TB SSD. The company said it will target the server market first, but after that it’s possible the drives could be available for standard laptops and PCs, providing businesses new potential ways to handle Big Data.