Everyone knows what happened with the Galaxy Note 7 and that knowledge had led experts to believe that the disaster would cost Samsung a huge sum of money; somewhere close to the figure of $17 billion to be precise. Strangely enough, the results seem to disagree.

According to the Korean tech giant, they are enjoying an operating profit of 9.2 trillion won, which is equivalent to $7.2 billion. Considering that Samsung had enjoyed a profit of 6.14 trillion won or $5.2 billion in Q4 2015, that's almost a 50% increase in profits! At this point, one has to wonder, where did the "loss" suffered by the OEM due to the failure of the Galaxy Note 7 go?

The operating profit made by Samsung in Q4, 2016 is not only bigger than Q4, 2015, but it is also the biggest ever in any quarter of any year, second only to the profits enjoyed by the company in Q3 2013. This remarkable and astonishing feat was achieved thanks mainly to its semi-conductor and OLED departments, which managed to make record amounts of profit due to demand from Chinese smartphone manufacturers. In fact, out of the 9.2 trillion won operating profit reported by the company, 4.5 trillion won ($3.8 billion) came from its semi-conductor business alone. Some experts have also pointed out that Samsung's decision to deal only in USD has also played a big part here, especially since the Korean won is comparatively weaker by a very significant margin.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The Korean tech giant has made its financial report for Q4, 2016 public now and it shows how strong the company is as a whole. The total revenue acquired by Samsung in the last quarter of 2016 was 53.33 trillion Won/$45.72 billion, with an operating profit of 9.22 trillion Won/$7.9 billion. Considering that these figures show a hike of 50% as compared to Q4, 2016, as well as being the most impressive figures for Samsung since 2013, one has to wonder where did the losses incurred by Samsung after the Note 7 disaster go?

As it turns out, Samsung's semiconductor business, with assistance from its display business has more than made up for any losses that its Mobile department may have suffered due to the unfortunate incident. In fact, even the Mobile department does not seem to have suffered too much due to the Note 7's discontinuation. Samsung claims that the continuing excellent performance of the S7 and S7 Edge, in combination with better performance from its mid-range and low-range handsets have kept its mobile department profitable. As detailed in the report, Samsung expects a decline in sales and profits in the first quarter of 2017 as compared to Q1, 2016. This would be brought on as a result of marketing expenses and apparently a dip in the sale of television sets.

 Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)