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The Samsung Galaxy Fold
- Samsung has warned investors that the global shortage of microchips is affecting production.
- A “serious imbalance” between supply and demand for chips continues, Samsung executives said.
- Apple, which makes its own chips, has avoided some of the supply chain problems Samsung faces.
- For more articles, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Samsung continues to feel the impact of the global microchip shortage, according to co-CEO Koh Dong-jin.
At Samsung’s annual meeting in Seoul, Koh cited the “serious imbalance in chip supply and demand in the IT sector globally” as a potentially significant issue for Samsung in 2021, according to Bloomberg. Chip shortages have wreaked havoc around the world, from car production to video game consoles.
Samsung is expected to announce and launch two major smartphones in 2021: the annual updates to the flagship smartphones Galaxy and Galaxy Note.
The latter could skip 2021, Koh told shareholders at the meeting. “It could be a burden to unveil two flagship models in one year,” he said, according to Bloomberg. In recent years, Samsung has routinely released the Galaxy and Galaxy Note models of its smartphones. The former usually debuts in late winter or early spring, and the latter debuts in late summer or early fall.
Although Samsung makes its own chips, the company’s smartphones rely on third-party components, such as Qualcomm processors.
Apple, however, produces its own processor for the iPhone, allowing the company to circumvent some of the supply problems facing electronics manufacturers in 2021.
The processor shortage problem “affects everyone except Apple,” according to Samsung Securities analyst MS Hwang.
In addition, Apple’s main production partner in China has assured its customers that the chip shortage will not affect production much.
“Since most of the customers we serve are large, they all have proper precautionary planning,” Hon Hai Precision Industry Chairman Liu Young-way said in February, according to Reuters. “So the impact on these big customers is there, but it’s limited.”
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