After nearly 2 years of having its butt kicked by Apple, Samsung is showing signs of a turnaround - sales are up

Samsung has reported its Q3 2015 earnings and the results are good. The company saw revenues rise to $45.6 billion (51.68 trillion won), up from $41.7 billion (47.45 trillion won) in the same period last year.

Profits rose to $6.42 billion (7.39 trillion won), up substantially from the $3.6 billion (4.1 trillion won) the company posted in 2014.

The growth in revenue and profit comes mainly from Samsung's semiconductor and display business.

But even Samsung's beleaguered smartphone business looks like it is in turnaround, after having its butt kicked by Apple's iPhone since early 2014.

Profits from the smartphone business reached $2.1 billion (2.4 trillion won), up from $1.54 billion (1.75 trillion won) during Q3 2014. Samsung said it had seen "significant" increases in demand for the Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge, and other smartphones.

Samsung's guidance states that Q4 should be stronger for smartphones sales. The company's phone business has suffered from increased competition from Apple, which adopted the phablet format pioneered by Samsung last year.The iPhone has taken a huge chunk out of Samsung's smartphone business and this trend is set to continue. While profit has risen in Q3 2015, Samsung said it expects earnings to decline in Q4 due to unfavourable exchange rates. To compensate, Samsung is pushing Pay, its competitor to Apple Pay, and will refocus on wearables. Samsung claimed that tablets sales were also increasing, if only modestly.

In an effort to appease investors, Samsung launched a $10 billion stock buyback scheme that will see the company invest up to half its free cash flow over the next three years.