Samsung Rings the Alarm For Electronics Sales (asiatimes.com) 27
schwit1 shares a report from Asia Times: The long, happy times enjoyed by the electronics sector are coming to an end, if a Friday alert published by industry colossus Samsung is any indication. According to an earnings guidance published today, the company anticipates consolidated sales of approximately 76 trillion won ($53.7 billion) and operating profits of 10.8 trillion ($7.6 billion) from this year's July-September period. According to South Korea's Joongang Ilbo newspaper, the profit figure is far below FnGuide's market consensus of 11.9 trillion won, and marks a 31.7% decline compared to the third quarter of 2021. The sales figure is up 2.7%, on year, but also falls short of the market expectation of 78.3 trillion won. It is the company's first YOY decline in quarterly profits in three years – and would appear to herald a wider slump for the sector as a whole.
Demand was pulled forward by a torrent of money (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Demand was pulled forward by a torrent of money (Score:5, Insightful)
... and now people don't have so much money, AND they still have the stuff they bought last year.
That, and being locked up for ($LOCATION_DEPENDENT_TIME) for up to 2 years..
And like you say.. the stuff from last year, and before, and .. I mean, the "core" of my HT setup is from 2015, the speakers from 2001.. my home office monitor and pc was "liberated" from the junkpile.. helpdesk was *tossing* brand-new monitors.. and not crap, either. Nice stuff. IPS. 3 year old desktops. Perfectly usable with a bit of new RAM and new SSD.
I never did understand the perpetual "buy buy buy" cycle. I buy new phones / pads when the smoke escapes from the old ones or the batteries fail / go puffy. Other stuff like HT kit I replace when new standards are forced down my throat (HDMI).. or if a sudden need arises (fans, etc).
I just do'nt get it. Keeping up wih the Joneses? Look at my new phone? How.. juvenile. The tech version of "Cute Shoes!" (Oblongs reference, all the Debbies are in one room pointing at each other's shoes, going "cute shoes!" *and they're all identical*.)
hardware lasts for an few years and year to year u (Score:2)
hardware lasts for an few years and year to year upgrades can only be like 2%-3% faster.
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Fans can usually be replaced.
Overall, though: Agreed. The fetish of having the latest and greatest, well, everything is puzzling. We got a newer (4K able) AV receiver and a BluRay a couple years ago and I figure we're go
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I don't want to buy anything but stuff dies. Also the new stuff can use less power. My motherboard just died. A used replacement would cost $130+tax+shipping used, that's near what I paid for the damned thing new in the first place. So I'm upgrading to a low end Zen+ and getting like 11% more performance (whee) for half the power consumption. Our TV died and I could probably have fixed it, but for only about twice as much we got a new TV 3" bigger that uses half the power. Does look like shit though. I don'
This is what you get (Score:5, Insightful)
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This generated fake economic activity
How is it fake? Spending stimulus money on fuel only enriches fossil fuel companies (filling stations often lose money selling lower-octane gasoline, which most vehicles use, and they employ few people given the revenues) but spending it on goods and services employs people, and puts money in their pockets which they can also spend on goods and services.
and you can't keep it up.
Not without a wealth tax anyway, and there's too little appetite for that in congress since many of them have been getting wealthy.
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Instead of a wealth tax they should take away all the loopholes
In general I agree, but that doesn't address the problem of the loopholes having existed. We therefore need a one-time wealth tax, and to simultaneously close the loopholes.
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Except consumer spending didn't actually go above trend, which pretty much invalidates your entire thesis.
Semiconductor manufacturing, especially on the high end, has been supply constrained for 15-20 years.
Not Consumable or Addictive. (Score:2)
SciFi provides the solution. Things like Tasp.
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OK, but do you really trust Elon (or his minions) to implant your droud? Because that's who's most likely to offer it to you any time soon.
Things were flagging beforehand (Score:4, Interesting)
Things were flagging beforehand due to numerous factors already: market saturation, age/demographic shift, cyclical bust/boom due to banking rates, and so on.
The bump seen across the sector in the last couple years was merely a temporary reprieve due to covid nesting (I'm home so I might as well be gaming) and markets shifting to meet new WFH demands.
Things are likely to take a prolonged downward slump across all verticals in the next decade, largely due to the financial banking crisis and demographic collapse across the world. This is largely unavoidable at this point, and global warfare isn't helping.
Overpriced (Score:3)
Maybe it's because their stuff is overpriced and sucks?
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Being Samsung, they are more likely to create some knock-off using their own components and locked down to a half-assed clone of Raspbian. They suffer from Not Invented Here syndrome quite a bit, thus their "Bixby" assistant, Samsung Pay, Samsung Health, etc. when they could have just used the Google-provided services like every other android manufacturer.
Saturation (Score:4, Insightful)
I see a bunch of comments about money and financial policy, but it simply seems like people have reached the saturation point for consumer electronic items. I'm certainly nostalgic about the old days when there were so many electronic gadgets I lusted after, but anymore, there's just nothing left to do but figure out how to get rid of them.
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I agree. My 7 year-old TV has more resolution than my eyes can perceive and it takes up the entire wall. I physically cannot fit a bigger television. So these companies have nothing left to sell me. Their only remaining business plan is to sell me a TV that captures my viewing habits and sells it to advertisers.
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I'm in a similar stuation.
I'm using a 46" screen given to me by my parents who replaced it with a 52" screen. It's 1080p and is more than adequate for my needs and desires.
It's more than large enough for my living room and I don't watch much TV or even streaming services, and the stuff I do watch is pretty much all 1080p at the top end. There is no REASON for me to replace it with something new.
Related article on Slashdot (Score:2)
Slashdot just recommended this to me: America is Choking Under an 'Everything Shortage' [slashdot.org]
This might explain the problem.
So, not phenomenal = slump? (Score:2)
So it is not a company on fire anymore? (Score:1)
Saturation (Score:2)
Prices (Score:2)
Maybe don't charge $1000 for a phone and $400 for a watch with a day worth of battery then. It's almost like when you raise prices to the point of absurdity, people stop buying at the same rate they did before.