Samsung expected to deliver healthy profits this year thanks to the Galaxy S8 and S8+

The world’s top smartphone maker is expected to deliver record profits this year, on the back of a memory market boom and strong sales of its Galaxy S8 smartphones. The stock is up more than 26 percent in 2017.

Lee’s arrest in February has had little financial impact so far, but it has raised doubts about how Samsung will tackle future decisions concerning acquisitions or investments in new businesses that would normally need his approval.

As long as the profits keep rolling in, analysts say Samsung Electronics and other affiliates will likely retain their senior leadership and make minor adjustments in Lee’s absence.

Pre-orders for the flagship S8 phone have been better than its predecessor, the firm says, suggesting that consumers have stuck by the brand despite the collapse of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 phones last year.

But China remains a sore point. Samsung’s share of the world’s biggest smartphone market fell to 3.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 from 8.6 percent a year earlier, according to researcher Counterpoint.

Samsung recently made the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones available in India and has been on its toes to quickly react to issues faced by consumers. It recently launched a firmware update to resolve the red-tint issue by adding a color tone adjustment setting.

With inputs from Reuters