Samsung ended 2023 with a microscopic profit score, but mobile business is booming

Samsung ended 2023 with a microscopic profit score, but mobile business is booming،

Even though 2023 has been (another) difficult year for the mobile industry as a whole, some companies have clearly been hit harder than others by the continued market difficulties. Samsung, for example, ceded its long-held global supremacy to Apple, which has enjoyed far more success in key regions like China with the iPhone15 series that the Galaxy S23 the family could achieve.

But the Korea-based tech giant is involved in many different industries, some of which have proven more profitable than the smartphone business, even back when Galaxy sales seemed impossible to compete with. Unfortunately for Samsung, this is no longer the case, and in Q4 2023, it was actually its mobile division that significantly outperformed the once-thriving memory sector.

Almost all of Samsung's profits came from phones

We're talking about the MX and Networks business, which technically includes smartphones, tablets and wearable devices of all types (from smartwatches to true wireless earbuds to fitness trackers), as well as various other investments in “future growth areas such as generative AI, digital health and XR”.

Samsung ended 2023 with a microscopic profit, but the mobile business is booming

Until Samsung released some sort of Alternative to Vision Pro and unless Galaxy tablets magically become as successful as Apple's iPads, make no mistake, this is a division dominated by smartphones, and its sales and profits are largely generated by high-end products such as Galaxy S23 and now the S24 series.

Interestingly, this particular business managed to grow from 1.7 trillion KRW in operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 to the aforementioned 2.73 trillion won at the end of last year, while the total gains of Samsung for 2023 have fallen off a cliff, going from 43.38 trillion KRW in 2022 to just 6.57 KRW. trillion.

This simply staggering decline is mainly due to a considerable drop in demand for memory chips, with the DS (Device Solutions) division, which includes this key part of Samsung's business, generating 2.18 trillion won in revenue from exploitation. losses in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The tech giant's revenue, in case you were wondering, saw much smaller declines for both the full year and the year-closing three-month window, which essentially means that Samsung's profit margins have been hit hard lately.

What's on the horizon for Galaxy phones, tablets and wearables?

Big things, apparently, at least if Samsung's latest predictions are to be believed. These are of course not very specific, rather vaguely and generically calling for year-over-year growth in premium smartphone demand in the first quarter of 2024, a general rebound of mobile industry this year, seeing a “similar” recovery for tablet sales, “double-digit value growth” for smartwatches, and “slight value growth” for TWS devices (i.e. i.e. true wireless earbuds).

Samsung further aims to “solidify” its leadership position in the foldable device market segment, which seems quite difficult as more companies enter the arena or expand their presence before Apple joins inevitably the fight for supremacy with its own iPhone Fold. …at some point in the presumably distant future.

If cheaper Galaxy Z Fold models are indeed on the way, this could prove relatively easy to achieve, at least if Motorola doesn't continue to push its increasingly popular Razr devices to lower and lower price points .

In addition to high-end phones, Samsung also boasts “healthy sales” of high-end tablets, suggesting that Galaxy Tab S9 The family is likely off to a good start at the global box office in the absence of new iPad Pros (or iPad Air, or standard iPad) in 2023.