Samsung Electronics is expected to reach a new record high in its fourth-quarter earnings with the arrival of the industry’s seasonal peak during the year-end holiday season.

Local analysts are projecting that the global IT behemoth’s sales and profit figures will further hit the firm’s highest ― up as high as 55.65 trillion won ($50 billion) and 8.83 trillion won, respectively ― from October to December.

Samsung has been renewing its profit figure quarter after quarter with the firm logging a record-breaking operating profit of 8.12 trillion won, going above the 8 trillion won mark for the first time in the third quarter of this year.

The company also posted 52.18 trillion won in revenue, an increase of 26 percent year-on-year, boosted by its strong sales of mobile devices and display panels.

Since its introduction of the smartphone Galaxy series, it has positioned itself as the world’s top-selling maker of smartphones as well as feature phones.

The Suwon-based firm has also gained an edge in its global patent battle with Apple Inc. with the possibility that the $1.05 billion fine handed to Samsung by a jury at a San Jose court for patent infringement may be reduced at the final trial.

In a related event, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed that Apple’s “pinch-to-zoom” patent, which the U.S. firm used as a cornerstone to its case against Samsung, was invalid.

The patent office said the “pinch-to-zoom” technology was deemed not original enough to be dubbed as Apple’s own patent.

“Samsung’s revenue and operating profit for 2012 are estimated to jump 23.4 percent and 81.1 percent year-on-year to reach 204 trillion won and 29.4 trillion won, respectively, and the figures for next year are expected to go up 21.6 percent and 34.9 percent year-on-year, recording 248 trillion won and 39.7 trillion won,” said Noh Geun-chang, senior analyst at HMC Securities.

IM Investment Bank also offered a fourth-quarter projection of 55.65 trillion won in sales and 8.83 trillion won in operating profit for the tech giant, up 17.7 percent and 66.7 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Woori Investment and Securities also said Samsung will reach its highest-ever operating profit in the final quarter with a figure of 8.7 trillion won owing to solid sales of its latest Galaxy Note 2.

Samsung is scheduled to release its earnings guidance in the first week of January and then announce its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 25.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)