Sales of its flagship Galaxy S7 phone has seen Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. beat market expectations, and their own, with the company reporting strong figures in its first quarter financials.

The South Korean company reported revenue for the quarter was 49.78 trillion won ($43.8 billion), up 5.7 percent compared to the same quarter in 2015, while operating profit came in at 6.68 trillion won ($5.58 billion), up 12 percent year on year; the company had predicted a profit figure of 6.6 trillion won in an upgraded estimate issued early April.

Samsung attributed the increase in revenue and profit on the early launch and successful sales of the flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, improved memory product mix, expanded 14nm supply of System LSI products and increased sales of OLED panels.

All was not rosy across the board, however, with the company’s display panel business decreasing due to a sharp decline in LCD panel earnings, although this was partially offset by earnings of OLED panels driven by sales of the Galaxy S7.

Samsung’s Consumer Electronics (CE) Division saw “significant earnings growth” year on year led by expanded sales of premium TV models such as SUHD TV and Curved TV in developed markets, including a notable sales increase of premium home appliance products in North America.

Where to now?

While the results were solid for Samsung, particularly given the success of the Galaxy S7, the market noted that Q1 figures were up due to the S7 being launched in March versus the S6 in April last year; the question being asked is where to now for Samsung in terms of products given that it has already played its biggest card of the year.

“Moving up the S7 release date to March, about a month earlier than the predecessor, even at a lower price was a good strategy for Samsung,” CIMB Securities Analyst Dohoon Lee told Bloomberg, before adding “[but] the market is still wondering what will be the next growth driver for Samsung and what its life would be like after smartphones.”

Samsung itself said it anticipates softening demand in the smartphone market and negative growth in the tablet market but at least in the next quarter the worldwide rollout of the Galaxy S7 models, as well as an increase in shipments of the mid-to-low-end Galaxy A and J series, are expected to help them maintain sales momentum and profit.

Shares in the company dropped 2.7 percent to 1.27 million won ($1114.83) at the close of trading local time Thursday.

Image credit: janitors/Flickr/CC by 2.0