On Thursday, bigwig South Korean electronics firm Samsung Electronics reported its earnings for the 2116 January-March quarter, posting strong profits from its mobile division. The mobile-profits gains reported by Samsung for the latest quarter come after seven consecutive quarters of plunging profits.

According to the figures reported by Samsung, the company's profit in the 2016 first quarter stood at of 6.68 trillion won ($5.8 billion), underscoring a 12 percent increase over the profits figures it reported in the same quarter last year.

The 2016 first-quarter profit reported by Samsung surpassed Bloomberg-compiled average of analysts' estimates of a 5.53 trillion won profit.

The mobile division of Samsung Electronics recorded a 3.89 trillion won operating profit; thereby marking a whopping 42 percent year-on-year increase. The operating profit posted by Samsung's mobile division is the highest operating profit to be reported by the division since the 2014 second quarter.

Samsung has said that a large part of the growth witnessed by its mobile division in the 2016 first-quarter is a result of the robust sales of its newest, March-launched flagship handsets --- Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. The company expects strong sales of the two handsets in the next quarter as well.

Though Samsung has not officially disclosed the exact sales figures of its latest handsets, Jay Yoo -- industry analyst at Korea Investment & Securities -- has projected that Galaxy S7 shipments in the reporting quarter touched nearly 9.7 million units.