Qualcomm (NASD: QCOM) shares are surging today, following a highly positive earnings announcement that largely shocked the investor community. Shares climbed more than 6% as chipmaker blew past Wall Street’s fiscal first-quarter estimates and offered robust second-quarter guidance. The firm’s tie to the expanding mobile phone market is reaping impressive benefits for the firm, and profits only constrained by the inability to produce more – something the firm feels they’ll overcome this year.

Excluding one time items, Qualcomm earned $1.26 a share, a rise of 30%. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of $1.13 a share.  Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs pointed, in particular, to sales of the company’s Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chips, which are found in devices such as smartphones. “We are pleased to report record quarterly revenues, non-GAAP EPS and MSM chip shipments, driven by the growing global demand for smartphones and our industry-leading portfolio of 3G/LTE chipsets,” he said in a statement released after the market close.

The luster may have subsided from Qualcom in recent years, as the major tech player failed to attract the attention some of the counterparts were receiving. All along though, the company has continued to provide profitability and solid returns. Qualcomm’s growth has surfed the rising popularity of smartphones, as the company generates revenue from the sale of wireless chips and from license payments tied to its technology. Despite a trend toward internally designed processors, smartphone makers like Apple Inc. (NASD: AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. have continued to use Qualcomm’s modem chips, which employ the next-generation wireless technology LTE.

Qualcomm is projecting fiscal second-quarter revenue between $5.8 billion and $6.3 billion and earnings between $1.10 a share and $1.18 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for revenue of $5.88 billion and earnings of $1.10 a share.

Qualcomm Inc.’s fiscal first-quarter profit surged 36% as brisk demand from smartphone manufacturers continued to drive the chip maker’s stronger-than-expected results. Qualcomm’s stronger quarterly results prompted the chip maker to raise its full-year guidance. It now sees per-share earnings of $4.25 to $4.45 on revenue of $23.4 billion to $24.4 billion. Qualcomm in November projected per-share earnings of $4.12 to $4.32 a share on revenue of $23 billion to $24 billion.

Earnings season, thus far, has been strong. In the tech industry and elsewhere, firms are posting impressive results, and generally beating analyst expectations – expectations that have been sour since the financial crisis.

The chip maker also said Chief Financial Officer William Keitel plans to retire after 11 years at the post, and tapped Applied Materials Inc. (NASD: AMAT) CFO George S. Davis to replace him.