According to a report by Korean newspaper which was relayed Tuesday by Bloomberg, Samsung Electronics is about to lay off ten percent of workers at its headquarters in South Korea “as the world’s biggest smartphone maker loses sales to Apple and Chinese vendors.”
It is no secret that things have been tough for Samsung ever since Apple released its larger-screened iPhones. In addition, strong competition from China’s vendors like Huawei and Xiaomi, which build comparable phones that cost half as much as Samsung’s high-end devices, has contributed to Samsung’s diminishing sales in China.
Samsung will be cutting fat by letting go workers in the human resources, public relations and finance departments, Korea Economic Daily reported Tuesday. It also plans to “cut some expenses next year” as well. The Galaxy maker had a total of 98,999 employees at its headquarters as of June 30.
Nomura Holdings analyst Chung Chang Won expects Samsung to augment these cost cutting measures with more “tightly controlled” spending on its mobile business.
“Samsung’s preparing to tighten its belt as it isn’t likely see rapid profit growth in the years to come,” he said.
Since April, Samsung’s market value has dropped by more than $40 billion following five straight monthly declines. Its share of global smartphone shipments fell more than three percentage points in the second quarter.
The firm is no longer the top phone seller in China, the world’s biggest mobile phone market with population of 1.33 billion people. The South Korean conglomerate recently updated its Note phablet lineup with the release of the Note5.
Additionally, it’s refreshed the Galaxy lineup with a new 5.7-inch Galaxy S6 edge+ smartphone, is getting ready to release the Tizen OS-driven Gear S2 smartwatch with up to three days of battery life and has been betting big on so-called Internet of Things.
Meanwhile, Apple is a little more than 24 hours away from unveiling its iPhone 6s and 6s Plus smartphones, new iPads (possibly including the rumored iPad Pro) and a revamped Apple TV set-top box.
Source: Bloomberg