Samsung closes its last Chinese manufacturing plant as sales plummet

[mongeese]

The big picture: Samsung has announced plans to shut down its smartphone assembly facility in Huizhou, China, just a year after they said goodbye to their Tianjin plant. With no smartphone plants operating in China as of this month, Samsung has all but abandoned the 400-million strong Chinese market amidst competition from local brands Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

In 2013, Samsung held the top spot in the Chinese phone market with a volume share of 19%, but last year, they couldn’t grab even 1%. Analysts suggest this may be because Samsung failed to appreciate the difference in trends in Chinese versus Western markets, with a sharp polarization occurring between premium and budget handsets, Nikkei reports. Samsung filled out its lineup with affordable devices with a smattering of premium features, while Chinese competitors either went all-in with flagship-killers or ultra-expensive status symbols.

Samsung’s failure in China might mirror its future in India, where it slipped from number one to number two last year, with Xiaomi taking the lead. Samsung continues to manufacture a large portion of its budget and mid-range handsets in India to sell to local and overseas markets, while many of their premium devices are manufactured in Vietnam. They currently employ 200,000 workers in the Hanoi-area to produce nearly 150 million Galaxy devices destined for East Asian, American and European markets.

Despite struggling in the world’s two largest markets, Samsung continues to be the largest handset manufacturer globally, with 20.8% sales volume. However, that’s down from 21.7% last year, and their overall shipments fell by 8% in volume last year.

In the mobile sector, Samsung’s greatest strengths have been Huawei’s political turmoil and Apple’s awkward pricing with the iPhone X and XS series. However, the iPhone 11 is both cheaper and more compelling than the XR, and the 11 Pro series aims to introduce a competitive feature set to justify its price. Huawei, meanwhile, has come out better than expected, and though the Mate 30 doesn’t come with Google apps preinstalled, the Play Store can be downloaded in a heartbeat. Huawei’s reputation is certainly tarnished but the impact on its products appears to be minimal on the markets where it was selling a majority of its phones.

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, with all its challenges, certainly is not their savior. Perhaps in a few generations folding phones will take off, but for now, Samsung’s flagship prospects rely on the upcoming Galaxy S11 series tipped to release on February 18 next year, and the rise of 5G as an incentive to upgrade.

Image Credit: Christian Wiediger and Kote Puerto

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82217-samsung-closes-last-chinese-manufacturing-plant-sales-plummet.html

 

[VitalyT]

Let's face it, smartphones is the shittiest marketplace today. It is now so insanely competitive that even higher margins can make it difficult to maintain pouring into R&D. The last ones to go down in this will be Chinese companies that can withstand any price underbidding.

Luckily, Samsung has a lot more than smartphones going on for them.

 

[neodynium]

Also Samsung will soon loose many flagship users - not willing to give up convenience of having minijack.

 

[p51d007]

Part of the reason "foreign" competition fails in China, is because to do business in China, you MUST hand over some of your "information" about your product. As everyone knows, China loves to "borrow" the technology, reverse engineer and come up with a product that mirrors a design. Many know how a lot of the Chinese brand phones look and act EXACTLY like their American, European, Japanese, South Korean & Taiwan counterparts. Then, they dump them on the market at a lesser price. And, with the Chinese "social credit score", I'm sure buying a national brand versus a foreign brand helps with your score.

 

[Uncle Al]

@p51d007 - Exactly right and the Chinese also post a pretty hefty "tax" on goods that are sent oversea's for sale as well.

 

[texasrattler]

Samsung could lose phones althogether and it wont affect their company overall. As most dont realize phones isnt their primary business its just what most know them by and of course TVs.
Samsung will be fine, theyll rebound and have a strong if not stronger year in 2020. Watch and see.

 

[Evernessince]

Part of the reason "foreign" competition fails in China, is because to do business in China, you MUST hand over some of your "information" about your product. As everyone knows, China loves to "borrow" the technology, reverse engineer and come up with a product that mirrors a design. Many know how a lot of the Chinese brand phones look and act EXACTLY like their American, European, Japanese, South Korean & Taiwan counterparts. Then, they dump them on the market at a lesser price. And, with the Chinese "social credit score", I'm sure buying a national brand versus a foreign brand helps with your score.

This is what you are referring to: https://www.wsj.com/articles/forced...-rise-in-china-european-firms-say-11558344240

I have no idea why this wasn't the main focus of the trade war. The US should have went into the trade war with it's allies, not alone. This is something that affects more then just the US, it would have been multiple times more potent with more countries signed on.

 

[Nobina]

Part of the reason "foreign" competition fails in China, is because to do business in China, you MUST hand over some of your "information" about your product. As everyone knows, China loves to "borrow" the technology, reverse engineer and come up with a product that mirrors a design. Many know how a lot of the Chinese brand phones look and act EXACTLY like their American, European, Japanese, South Korean & Taiwan counterparts. Then, they dump them on the market at a lesser price. And, with the Chinese "social credit score", I'm sure buying a national brand versus a foreign brand helps with your score.

I'm not disagreeing with anything here but it's not like Apple, Samsung and every other phone manufacturer has only original designs, ideas and technology. They all "borrow" from each other, Google has wet dreams of becoming Apple, their Pixel line just screams iPhone, they're just trying to hide it while China doesn't because China doesn't answer to anyone.

 

[psycros]

This is what you are referring to: https://www.wsj.com/articles/forced...-rise-in-china-european-firms-say-11558344240

I have no idea why this wasn't the main focus of the trade war. The US should have went into the trade war with it's allies, not alone. This is something that affects more then just the US, it would have been multiple times more potent with more countries signed on.

The US has no allies in this regard as long as the EU countries keep dancing to the globalist-socialist tune of the UN.

 

[toooooot]

Also Samsung will soon loose many flagship users - not willing to give up convenience of having minijack.

usb c to 3.5 is really cheap and compact

 

[Theinsanegamer]

usb c to 3.5 is really cheap and compact

It is an unnecessary dongle that you will easily lose, or have to stop using to charge, and applies additional wear and tear on the charging port. It's also another unnecessary charge for a $800+ device that comes built into $150 phones.

Just put them back in the damn phones. They are more then large enough, getting rid of them is just another blatant attempt at market control and profiteering with junk engineering.

 

[EClyde]

China knows how to rule the world. Ya don't needs guns and bombs

 

[ferrellsl]

China knows how to rule the world. Ya don't needs guns and bombs

That's a ridiculous statement in light of the fact that the Chines govt. is shooting protesters in Hong Kong.

 

[PEnnn]

The US has no allies in this regard as long as the EU countries keep dancing to the globalist-socialist tune of the UN.

Our fearless BoneSpur leader did his best to back stab our European allies and declares daily economic wars against them. But now you need them to come to our help??

And you believe the UN rules the EU and the world?? LOL!!!! Which conspiracy channel you're watching these days?

 

[OortCloud]

Why are so many articles on Techspot now followed by comments just filled with nationalist nonsense and xenophobia? What is the world coming to?

 

[R00sT3R]

Part of the reason "foreign" competition fails in China, is because to do business in China, you MUST hand over some of your "information" about your product. As everyone knows, China loves to "borrow" the technology, reverse engineer and come up with a product that mirrors a design.

..Of course the US did the exact same thing in the 19th century when it was desperately trying to catch up with the European powers.

..And before that, in the Middle Ages, the European powers stole Middle Eastern & Chinese inventions and technology to forge ahead.

Nothing new under the sun.

 

[m3tavision]

That is because all the Chinese stole all of everything that mad Samsung phones, Samsung.

^^

 

[wiyosaya]

This is what you are referring to: https://www.wsj.com/articles/forced...-rise-in-china-european-firms-say-11558344240

I have no idea why this wasn't the main focus of the trade war. The US should have went into the trade war with it's allies, not alone. This is something that affects more then just the US, it would have been multiple times more potent with more countries signed on.

IMO, its because most of the rest of the world retains some semblance of sanity. I am far from saying that China is perfect, that they do not steal IP, and all the complaints, etc., etc.

However, with manufacturing on a downturn in the US, at least, I would have to say that with participation of most of the rest of the world, the impact on the economy of all nations could be exactly the same as what is happening in the US - and lead to a global recession. Somehow, I think this would have been much more detrimental, and my bet is that even without the rest of the world stepping in to join feckless leader, the world is currently heading for a global recession anyway.

We just got the latest sign the US is losing manufacturing jobs — the opposite of what Trump's trade wars were supposed to accomplish

While President Donald Trump has pledged to revive factory jobs in the US, that pocket of the economy dipped deeper into a recession last month.

markets.businessinsider.com

We just got the latest sign the US is losing manufacturing jobs — the opposite of what Trump's trade wars were supposed to accomplish

MAGA my a$$.

EDIT: As to who is paying the tariffs, it is not China. I recently ordered some electronic parts from Digi-Key for a hobby project I am working on. For each part manufactured in China, there was a separate line associated with the part that said "tariff" and a cost for the tariff that I was charged for buying that part. I bet in feckless leader's eyes that is China paying the tariff.

 

[loki1944]

That's a ridiculous statement in light of the fact that the Chines govt. is shooting protesters in Hong Kong.

Not really if you look at how they are expanding in places like Africa.

 

[EClyde]

That's a ridiculous statement in light of the fact that the Chines govt. is shooting protesters in Hong Kong.

In case you hadn't noticed Hong Kong is not the world

 

[tacobravo]

Part of the reason "foreign" competition fails in China, is because to do business in China, you MUST hand over some of your "information" about your product. As everyone knows, China loves to "borrow" the technology, reverse engineer and come up with a product that mirrors a design. Many know how a lot of the Chinese brand phones look and act EXACTLY like their American, European, Japanese, South Korean & Taiwan counterparts. Then, they dump them on the market at a lesser price. And, with the Chinese "social credit score", I'm sure buying a national brand versus a foreign brand helps with your score.

More like blatantly stealing from their competition

 

[Markoni35]

Why are so many articles on Techspot now followed by comments just filled with nationalist nonsense and xenophobia? What is the world coming to?

Probably because of the recent trend (among so called "liberal" parties) all over the world that advocate unlimited immigration from undeveloped world to the developed. And of course, immigrants are mostly males, which usually end up living on welfare, and doing crime.

As we know from physics, each action creates equal but opposite reaction. Xenophobia is just a result of increased criminal activity (especially rapes and robberies) caused by immigrants. As an example, check out how a very open semi-socialist country like Sweden was ruined by unlimited immigration.

In 2015 they had more explosions in Stockholm than Northern Ireland had in Belfast during the period of highest IRA activity. But car-bombs in Belfast were non-stop on television, everyone knew about them, everyone was talking about those attacks. Equally devastating terrorist explosions in Stockholm, Malmo and other Swedish cities weren't and still aren't covered by the world media. The truth is being hidden from the public eye.

But people know it's happening anyway. The news may spread slowly, but thanks to social media, it still does. Media coverups additionally increase xenophobia, even among those very liberal, because people are very sensitive to media lies, hypocrisy and coverups.

 

[lazer]

Samsung make good devices. Had a Samsumg phone that broke when I dropped it so I bought an LG, also very nice but cheaper.

I have an old Samsung 10" tablet that was getting old. So I bought a Asus tablet was very nice until I had to update the Android OS. Don't understand what happened but it kept rebooting and Asus's tech service is made up of *****s or numbskulls who don't seem to be very helpful nor understand much.

I went back to my old Samsung and you know what, it is still a great machine, a bit slow, a bit old, but maybe their success in making great products cause people to keep them for long.

They should have learnt from M$ and Asus to make an inferior product and people will pay to replace it.

 

[VvvPpp]

The quality of Samsung products lately has been absolutely abysmal. Every Samsung device I bought in the last 3 years (and I have a few) has either broken down shortly out of warranty, spent more time in the service center than actually doing it's job or performed below expectations. Maybe their problem is not so much in product differentiation but chasing the bottom line at the expense of product quality and brand reputation.

 

[OortCloud]

Probably because of the recent trend (among so called "liberal" parties) all over the world that advocate unlimited immigration from undeveloped world to the developed. And of course, immigrants are mostly males, which usually end up living on welfare, and doing crime.

As we know from physics, each action creates equal but opposite reaction. Xenophobia is just a result of increased criminal activity (especially rapes and robberies) caused by immigrants. As an example, check out how a very open semi-socialist country like Sweden was ruined by unlimited immigration.

In 2015 they had more explosions in Stockholm than Northern Ireland had in Belfast during the period of highest IRA activity. But car-bombs in Belfast were non-stop on television, everyone knew about them, everyone was talking about those attacks. Equally devastating terrorist explosions in Stockholm, Malmo and other Swedish cities weren't and still aren't covered by the world media. The truth is being hidden from the public eye.

But people know it's happening anyway. The news may spread slowly, but thanks to social media, it still does. Media coverups additionally increase xenophobia, even among those very liberal, because people are very sensitive to media lies, hypocrisy and coverups.

What a disgusting xenophobic post and what misinformed ignorant nonsense. I guess that is what happens when you really think Social Media is the source of truth...