The year 2016 has not been kind to Samsung. That’s because they had a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco for the record books. While some say, “It’s not that bad. Samsung is a multi-billion dollar ?business. So they will bounce back.” I hope so. The Samsung profit plunge: It’s bad.
You see, Samsung lost 30% of operating profit in Q3 2016 alone. As a result, Samsung lost over 5.6 billion dollars in just three months! I don’t care who you are; no company can afford to lose that much money in three months. Furthermore, there are internal quarrels. Some shareholders appointed?Lee Jae-yong on the board of directors. He is the grandson of Samsung’s founder and son of Samsung’s current chairmen. Consequently, some board members complain Jae-yong got the position because of his birth, not by his merit.
But the Galaxy Note 7 helped create this crisis. Add to that Apple’s somewhat successful iPhone 7 campaign. However, Samsung lost more than just profit. They lost a lot of consumer confidence and respect. Sure, they might make it up when Galaxy Note 8 comes out. But that’s not until 2017. First Samsung stopped the original Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s. They tried replacement ones. But even those caught on fire and injured dozens of people. These phones should have sold between 15-20 million. Obviously, that’s not going to happen.
However, Samsung has one little thing to cheer about. High end smartphone sales decline across the board. It seems the more smartphone companies encourage high end smartphone buying, the more consumers stay away. Even Apple’s iPhone 7 is struggling. Can you blame them? Not everybody has to have the latest gadget and the latest smartphone technology. For some, the basic smartphone is enough. But what about Samsung? Was this a good time to create division by bringing in the Samsung founder’s grandson? That seems to create more division at a time Samsung needs unity. Samsung lost 30% of profit in three months. Will they make it up? How long will it take?