Samsung Electronics Co. is expecting a 73% jump in fourth-quarter operating profit from the year before on the strength of booming smartphone sales.

Samsung said Friday in preliminary earnings guidance that it estimates operating profit of 5.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion) for the three months that ended in December. It reported 3.01 trillion won a year earlier.

The world’s biggest maker of memory chips and LCDs says its 2011 operating profit is an estimated 16.15 trillion won.

Yonhap news agency says Samsung’s estimate beat a market consensus of 4.81 trillion won surveyed by its financial news arm.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company says it will provide full results later and that Friday’s estimates may differ from those.