Samsung is set to report a robust quarterly profit rise on Friday, starting the year on an upbeat note aided by sales of smartphones. Samsung is now the world's top smartphone maker in the third quarter, is continuing to give Apple a good kicking with sleek designs and a rich product line-up.

Its handset division is now Samsung's biggest earnings generator, raking in record profits. The company appears to be dealing with a profit squeeze from its memory chips with new revenue sources such as mobile processing chips and high-end OLED displays.

The world's biggest technology firm by revenue is likely to report $4.1 billion in October-December analyts think. That would be its best profit since the third quarter of 2010, and up 57 percent from a year ago and 11 percent from the preceding quarter.

In 2012, Samsung is likely to report a 28 percent rise in operating profit with a 12 percent gain in revenue, according to analysts.