As the smartphone market’s immediate future continues to look quite bleak, Samsung’s mobile division could apparently be facing its first-ever operating loss.
Korean publication HankYung (via @Jukanlosreve) reports that Samsung is making drastic cuts internally as it braces for a rough year ahead. Amid the ongoing memory shortage and skyrocketing prices, one of Samsung’s efforts in cutting back is apparently to restrict executive travel to economy, rather than paying for more expensive business-class flights. Not exactly a good sign.
But the big detail from this report is that, apparently, there are concerns that Samsung could post its first-ever operating loss in its mobile division this year.
Samsung MX has historically always turned a profit, which isn’t particularly surprising as Samsung has been the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer for years (though Apple is taking the crown). An operating loss, where Samsung spends more money on the division than it brings in, would be a massive blow to the company.
This potential comes as the smartphone market as a whole is struggling. Ongoing shortages and rising costs are leading to forecasts of major drops in the market, even bigger than what we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it remains to be seen if Samsung will actually post a loss – the Galaxy S26 series is apparently doing better than expected – it’s a pretty big deal that the thought is even on the table.
More on Samsung:
- The Galaxy S26 series is now officially on sale, and the trade-in values have plummeted
- Galaxy S26 switching to ‘Hey Perplexity’ wake word for its third AI assistant
- Samsung wants to let you vibe code apps and more on future Galaxy phones
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