Halfway through the year, Samsung has reportedly cut how many phones it expects to produce this year by 10%, citing lower global demand because of high inflation and unrest over the war in Ukraine.
Samsung originally estimated it would ship 310 million phones by year’s end, but that number has been reduced to 280 million phones, a source in the company’s supply chain told Maeil Business News, South Korea’s main daily business newspaper. Samsung will reduce production by 35% in May and another 10% later in the year, an analyst at Shinhan Investment told the publication.
On Wednesday, a report similarly said that Apple would also produce fewer phones than the 240 million phones analysts expected — a small but notable 20 million shortfall down to the 220 million iPhones released last year. That report cited a wide range of global factors, including geopolitical shifts, inflation and exchange rate volatility, as well as the component shortages and COVID disruption that’ve plagued the tech industry since the pandemic started in early 2020.
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The Maeil report cites fewer reasons for the lower phone demand — namely, inflation softening consumer spending and the war in Ukraine depressing sales in Eastern Europe. Still, if the new target of 280 million phones is correct, it’ll still be higher than the 270 million devices Samsung shipped last year — the most of any phone maker.
Samsung didn’t respond to a request for comment.
