Samsung Electronics has announced its fourth-quarter financial results, and posted a 76% percent jump in its profits, driven largely by smartphone sales.

The South Korean firm reported a net profit of (US$6.6 billion), compared to US$3.76 billion a year ago. Revenues were also up, by 19 percent US$52.6 billion.

The company said growth was mainly driven by solid sales of Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note ll. The company reportedly sold up to 20 million units of Galaxy S III in the first 100 days of its release, while Galaxy Note 2 had sold over 5 million units by the close of November 2012.

The company said operating profit for IT & Mobile Communications at the group level was US$5.1 billion on revenues of US$29.42 billion.

Cellular News quoted Samsung’s Senior Vice President and Head of Investment Relations Robert Yi as saying "despite uncertainties in Europe and concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff creating a difficult business environment, we did our best this quarter to achieve strong earnings based on a strategic focus on differentiated and high value-added products as well as our technological competitiveness."

Mr. Yi however expressed caution over the continued strength of the company in 2013 because they foresees huge competition from new products and a price war this year.

He said demand for smartphones in developed countries is expected to decelerate in the first quarter of this year, while Samsung’s emerging counterparts would see their markets escalate with the introduction of more affordable smartphones and a bigger appetite for tablet PCs throughout the year.

On the components business side, semiconductors, mobile DRAM, LCD panel for TV and OLED panels for smartphones landed also profits in the fourth quarter, but demand for PC DRAM, and Display Panel remained weak.

200% Revenue Increase in Ghana

Head of Business for Mobile Products at Samsung West Africa, Jaspreet Singh told Adom News the company increased revenue by almost 200% last year in Ghana on the back of huge sales of Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2.

He could not give specific units of the two devices sold in Ghana so far, but reliable sources told Adom News the company sold over 45,000 units of Galaxy S III alone in Ghana last year.

Samsung also remains the handset market leader with almost 45% market share in the West African country.

The company recently introduced its affordable Android-based Samsung Galaxy Pocket, which is making great strides in Ghana and other developing markets.

Meanwhile, the company has shown off a rugged version of its Galaxy smartphone - the Xcover 2 which the company says is optimized to endure against the most rugged outdoor conditions.

The new smartphone is dust and sand proof and also water resistant to a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes (IP67 Certified). Users can also take photos under water with the direct camera key.

The phone comes with pre-downloaded Google map data, an enhanced GPS + GLONASS, which shortens the satellite signal detection by up to 20% to track location more accurately. This enables the phone to cope with rural use where phone signals may be weak or non-existent,

The LED Flash next to the camera can be used like a torch, and it has a huge battery capacity of 570 hours (1,700mAh).

It has a 5-megapixel camera and 1Ghz dual core processor. The operating system is Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean).