Samsung may be getting ready to cut up to 10%, or almost 10,000, employees from its books according to the Korean Economic Times newspaper.
With almost 100k staff Samsung is South Korea’s biggest single employer, although in total Samsung employs almost 400k people across the globe.
According the newspaper, which cites unnamed sources, Samsung is looking to cut costs following the lukewarm reception of its latest phones – the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Even though these handsets have reviewed well in the press, the public have failed to get on board and sales have been lower than expected.
This could be due to a combination of pricing and the fact that Samsung decided to drop features Samsung fans had come to expect from its phones, such as expandable storage.
The success of Apple’s latest iPhones has only added to Samsung’s smartphone woes, and things will get worse soon with the imminent announcement of the iPhone 6S.
More than $40 billion has been wiped out from Samsung’s value since April, while its global smartphone shipments fell more than 3% in the following months.
Chinese manufacturers as well as Apple eating into sales – Samsung is no longer the top seller of smartphones in China. Xiaomi now leads the way there, with Huawei and Apple second and third respectively. Samsung trails in fifth position in what is now the world’s biggest smartphone market.
Samsung has recently announced two new phones in an effort to stem the flow – the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Note 5. The latter was one of Samsung’s most eagerly anticipated phones this year, however there are no plans to release it in Europe.
Via: Bloomberg
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
