Samsung's Biggest Problem is Keeping up with Chip Production for Smartphone Demand

[dgstorm]

Last year, Samsung's biggest problem in mobile was fighting off Apple lawsuits while trying to become the number one household brand. They succeeded on the second front, and things are looking better for the first one, but this year they have an entirely new problem on their hands. Their chipset division is having trouble keeping up with demand for all of their hot-selling smartphones. They have even started outsourcing from other manufacturers to keep up. Here's a quote with more of the details,

Samsung Electronics reportedly has expanded the purchase of memory products from outside, including the purchase of mobile DRAM chips from Elpida Memory as well as NAND flash and eMMC devices from Toshiba.

Samsung's own supply of memory products is already falling short of demand, including that for its Galaxy-series smartphones and tablets, industry sources have claimed.

Any shortage of DRAM and NAND flash chips at Samsung will affect the global memory supply/demand balance, given that the vendor's in-house production capacity accounts for the biggest portion of the world total, the sources said. Nonetheless, Samsung has switched to a more flexible approach to its component procurement - an effort to manage risk, the sources observed.

Some industry observers, however, have questioned the motive of Samsung's reported move to buy more memory products from outside suppliers. They noted that Samsung reportedly is buying more chips from Japanese firms while continuing to use its in-house produced chips for its Galaxy-series mobile devices. This is reportedly happening when Samsung has actually implemented a strategy to tightly control its chip output, the observers pointed out.

As problems go, this seems like a good one to have...

Source: DigiTimes

 

[52brandon]

As problems go, this seems like a good one to have...

yes and no. It's awesome to be so popular that you have trouble keeping up, but when they can't supply their product in a timely manner to people that need/want it, specifically other MFRs, it is likely to lead to them losing the business. Samsung has done an amazing job though at keeping up with all the demand for their own products and for parts to other MFRs. Whoever is controlling the ship is doing a bang up job. I expect them to figure it out with little noticeable delay