Samsung Electronics Co posted a record $4.7 billion quarterly operating profit, driven by booming smartphone sales, and will spend $22 billion this year to boost production of chips and flat screens to pull further ahead of smaller rivals, Reuters reported.

Samsung didn't give its own sales volume data, but research firm Strategy Analytics put sales at 36.5 million smartphones in October-December, with 3rd-ranked Nokia on 19.6 million.

Samsung's telecoms business earned a record 2.64 trillion won ($2.35 billion) profit in October-December on increased sales of its flagship Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung will increase spending this year by 9 percent to 25 trillion won - more than the GDP of leading cocoa producer Ivory Coast - with 15 trillion won going to the chips division, 6.6 trillion won to flat screens and the rest to boosting overseas production capacity and new research and development centers.

The record investment dwarfs a combined 1.3 trillion yen ($16.6 billion) that leading Japanese technology companies - Sony Corp, Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Sharp Corp - have planned for the current year to end-March.