Samsung is said to be cutting the number of cell phone production during 2022, from 310 million units to 280 million units.
Although the number of phones produced will still be very large, the decline - if true - is quite significant. This step is considered because of a trend where mobile phone manufacturers are preparing for worsening conditions, before improving later.
Samsung was previously said to be targeting the production of 300 million units of mobile phones by 2022, a figure that has not been achieved since 2017. However, global economic conditions that have not improved during this pandemic seem to have made them drop this target, as quoted by The Verge, Saturday (28/5/2022). ).
The decline in the production of this cellphone, called SamMobile, will occur in all lines of Samsung phones, from the lower series to the flagship. The move to reduce production of low-cost cell phones when economic conditions worsen may seem a strange move.
The reason is, if economic conditions worsen, people should choose to buy cellphones that are cheaper, right? But of course there are also possibilities where people choose to refrain from updating their phones.
For example, low-end cell phone users who don't buy a new cell phone until it's absolutely necessary, because the phone is broken or for some other reason. Likewise for flagship phone users, which in terms of performance are actually still very capable to be used for at least two years.
The current condition is considered not too good. With the pandemic not over yet, also the Russian invasion of Ukraine that made many companies stop their business in Russia, including Samsung which has stopped shipping its products to the Red Bear Country.
Likewise Apple, Samsung's rival, which estimates that sales of its products during 2022 will stagnate or not grow. This is evidenced by their plan not to increase the number of device production during 2022.
There is even a product line that has been reduced in production. For example the iPhone SE whose production was cut by 20%.