South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics recently announced its financial results for the third quarter of the ongoing year, and posted $21.07 billion in revenue, on a net income of $3.1 billion. As the maker indicates, its third quarter operating income for the telecommunications unit was of 1.03 trillion won ($871 million), registering a 23 percent increase when compared to the same quarter a year ago.

According to the company, it managed to sell a number of 60.2 million mobile phones in the time frame, marking an increase of 6 percent when compared to the same quarter a year ago, and helped by a great demand seen for the touchscreen devices Samsung delivered to the market. The company, which is now placed on the second position on the worldwide mobile phone market, has managed to see its market share increase to 20.8 percent, from the 19.2 percent in the previous quarter, unlike the leader Nokia, which saw its sales going down by 8 percent.

As Samsung reveals, the mobile phone sales are expected to surge even more in the following quarters, yet it also expects to see a “price competition” from rival mobile phone makers, which already started to deliver a greater number of mid to low-end handsets to the market. The company stated that during the third quarter of the year, its Average Selling Price (ASP) per phone went down by 3 percent to $120, due to a decline in sales of high-end mobile phones in South Korea.

Even so, the handset vendor still announced that its operating profit margin went to 9.6 percent, down from the 10 percent it registered in the second quarter of the year. High-end phone sales in Europe and the United States are those that helped in this area, while another factor, according to the company, is the “enhanced cost competitiveness.” The strong sales in mobile phones, as well as those in chips and flat-panel TVs, have helped the maker triple its quarterly profits.