The Korean electronics giant announced Friday, that its estimated operating profit nearly doubled for the first three months of this year hitting a record-high figure of 5.8 trillion won, roughly 5.2 billion US dollars.

The company's sales, meanwhile, reached 39.7 billion dollars, up 22 percent from the previous year.

The 97 percent jump in Samsung's operating profit exceeds expectations of analysts by nearly one billion dollars.

And the record-high figure was unexpected, as the first three months of the year is usually the slowest period for manufacturers.

The driving force of Samsung's strong performance Recent figures show that nearly seven out of ten mobile phone users in Korea are using a Samsung product, while the company ranked number one in the global smartphone market in the first quarter, surpassing its rival Apple.

And if Samsung continues to excel in these areas, analysts say it could report a quarterly profit of six billion dollars by the third quarter.