One day after Apple reported its most recent quarterly earnings, another giant mobile player has done the same.
Samsung today revealed the results of its Q4 2015, which saw Samsung pull in 53.32 trillion won ($44.15 billion USD) in consolidated revenue and 6.14 trillion won ($5.05 billion USD) in operating profit. Focusing on mobile specifically, Samsung’s IM (IT and Mobile Communications) Division reported 25 trillion won ($20.71 billion USD) in revenue and 2.23 trillion ($1.85 billion USD) in operating profit.
Looking ahead to 2016, Samsung warns that it thinks that it’ll only see single-digit percentage growth in both smartphones and tablets. The company attributes this small amount of growth to “softening demand and intensifying competition.” Samsung says that it plans to focus on increasing its smartphone shipments and keeping a double digit margin by releasing “competitive devices and an optimized product portfolio.”
It makes sense that Samsung expects softening demand and increased competition in 2016. While smartphone adoption has grown quite a bit in recent years, it can’t keep growing like that forever, and so eventually sales will slow a bit. And there is increasing competition from several device makers. There are lots of compelling options in the “affordable smartphone category,” and we’re seeing companies like Huawei and Xiaomi gobbling up some market share of their own. That said, Samsung’s next Galaxy S and Note flagships are probably some of the most anticipated phones of 2016, and the company will probably still control a major chunk of the mobile market when the year comes to an end.
