Samsung Electronics Co. said third-quarter net profit tripled to a record amid higher prices for computer memory chips and increased sales of consumer products from flat screen televisions to mobile phones. South Korea's biggest corporation and a world leader in consumer electronics earned 3.72 trillion won ($3.14 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, it said Friday. Samsung posted net profit of 1.22 trillion won a year earlier. The quarterly net profit was an all-time high for the company, said spokesman Reuben Staines. The previous record was 3.14 trillion won in the first quarter of 2004. Sales at the Suwon, South Korea-based company rose 29 percent to 24.86 trillion won during the quarter from 19.3 trillion won a year earlier. That was also a record, Staines said. Samsung is a major force in global electronics, making not only consumer products but also key components such as memory chips and panels. The company is the world's biggest seller of flat screen TVs, computer memory chips and liquid crystal displays. It ranks No. 2 behind Finland's Nokia Corp. in mobile phones. Sales of flat screen TVs increased 24 percent from the same quarter last year to 7.73 million. It also sold 60.2 million mobile phone handsets in the third quarter, up 16 percent from last year.
