Less than last year’s shipment and initial target
Samsung has dropped its smartphone shipment target for 2022 from the previous 300 million units to 260 million units, TheElec has learned.
Earlier in the year, the South Korean tech giant had planned to manufacture a total of 334 million units of smartphones with the goal of shipping around 300 million units of them.
Samsung concluded 2021 with a total annual shipment of 270 million units, so its new goal for 2022 is less than that even if it successfully meets the goal.
The company’s biggest dip in smartphone shipment came in 2020 due to the pandemic and it shipped 250 million units that year.
In prior years, it more or less always shipped more than 300 million units per year.
With the pandemic sizzling out near the end of 2021, Samsung had planned to recover its annual smartphone shipment levels to those before the pandemic.
Out of the 334 million units it had planned to manufacture this year, 284 million units would have been manufactured in its own facilities while 50 million units were to be given to its joint development manufacturers in China.
But the overall downturn of the global economy due to inflation, supply chain issues and low demand for smartphones has caused Samsung to readjust this plan, sources said.
Apple has been the only company so far seemingly unaffected by the situation among smartphone makers like Samsung.
The South Korean tech giant is planning to manufacture 34 million units of smartphones on its own between October and November, sources said, far less than prior quarters and the same time period years ago.
