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Samsung Reportedly Cutting Phone Production by 30 Million This Year

Inflation and the war in Ukraine have led Samsung to slash the number of phones it expects to produce by 10%, a report says.

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David Lumb Mobile Reporter
David Lumb is a mobile reporter covering how on-the-go gadgets like phones, tablets and smartwatches change our lives. Over the last decade, he's reviewed phones for TechRadar as well as covered tech, gaming, and culture for Engadget, Popular Mechanics, NBC Asian America, Increment, Fast Company and others. As a true Californian, he lives for coffee, beaches and burritos.
Expertise smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, telecom industry, mobile semiconductors, mobile gaming
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Halfway through the year, Samsung has reportedly cut how many phones it expects to produce this year by 10%, citing lower global demand because of high inflation and unrest over the war in Ukraine.

Samsung originally estimated it would ship 310 million phones by year's end, but that number has been reduced to 280 million phones, a source in the company's supply chain told Maeil Business News, South Korea's main daily business newspaper. Samsung will reduce production by 35% in May and another 10% later in the year, an analyst at Shinhan Investment told the publication.

On Wednesday, a report similarly said that Apple would also produce fewer phones than the 240 million phones analysts expected -- a small but notable 20 million shortfall down to the 220 million iPhones released last year. That report cited a wide range of global factors, including geopolitical shifts, inflation and exchange rate volatility, as well as the component shortages and COVID disruption that've plagued the tech industry since the pandemic started in early 2020.

Read also: Best Android Phones in 2022

The Maeil report cites fewer reasons for the lower phone demand -- namely, inflation softening consumer spending and the war in Ukraine depressing sales in Eastern Europe. Still, if the new target of 280 million phones is correct, it'll still be higher than the 270 million devices Samsung shipped last year -- the most of any phone maker.

Samsung didn't respond to a request for comment.