Posted on 02/02/2016 9:31:58 PM PST by Swordmaker
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Samsung Electronics sales and general management costs; R&D costs (won)
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Now many executives with the company are saying the vision is no longer realistic. Samsung has recently been cutting staff numbers and reducing marketing and other sales costs. Many observers are saying Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong has opted for "managing the situation" since taking over the reins from his father, group chairman Lee Kun-hee, after the elder Lee's health failed in May 2014.
According to electronic disclosure data provided on Jan. 28 by the Financial Supervisory Service, Samsung Electronics staff numbers stood at 98,557 as of 3Q15 in the wake of restructuring efforts last year. The number, down by 1,000 positions from the year before, is now expected to drop further.
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Samsung Electronics staff and average salary
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"What can we do? The company is in trouble," said a senior Samsung executive recently.
Costs are also being cut. Sales and general management costs for 2014 stood at 52.9 trillion won (US$43.8 billion); last year, they were down by over two trillion won to 50.76 trillion won (US$42.0 billion). Research and development spending dipped from 14.39 billion won (US$11.9 million) to 13.71 billion won (US$11.4 million).
Sales have been sliding for two straight years since peaking at 228.69 trillion won (US$189.3 billion) in 2013. But many analysts say the company has failed to come up with a clear path to turning its low growth around.
Growth has also been slack for five "future growth drivers" announced in 2010: solar cells, car batteries, LEDs, bio-pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment. The company did move in Dec. 2015 to set up a new electronic device project team, but its decision was one competitors had already made. The bio industry area, which it touted as a source of future growth at the time of the Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries merger, has been similarly weak. An anticipated NASDAQ listing in the second quarter for Samsung Bioepis, which develops new bio-pharmaceuticals, has been postponed, while a patent dispute has erupted with the US company Amgen.
"When you're facing a crisis, your first priority may just be survival. Our plan is to watch the market situation closely as 'fast followers' rather than 'first movers,' and then go about investing when the opportunity is there," said a senior Samsung source.
The "situation management" style of leadership has drawn criticisms from some observers.
"Since Lee Jae-yong took over, [Samsung Electronics'] interest has solely been in buying up companies that it can take advantage of," said a Seoul National University professor who asked not to be identified.
"Because of failures within Samsung itself, they’ve neglected to build their own basic competitiveness through experience," the professor added.
A securities company analyst, also speaking on condition of anonymity, noted the difference in the company from when Lee Kun-hee was leader.
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Samsung Electronics performance (trillion won)
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"Today, you don't see anyone looking for or talking about the way forward. It's just managers left," the analyst said.
Another source of concern has been the company's "selection strategy" of selling off affiliates that are considered less essential.
"In the 1990s, Sony restructured its electronic sector because of the deficit it had racked up, and it focused instead on more profitable financial and film and music projects. It ended up losing cutting-edge technology and key talent from its restructuring in electronics projects, which accounted for 70% of its total sales," said Kim Hyun-chul, a professor at the Seoul National University Graduate School of International Studies.
"Samsung is going to need to cut costs, but it also has to work to find markets for new growth," Kim added.
By Lee Jeong-hun, staff reporter
I wear glasses to watch tv. Why would I want to wear two pair of glasses?
3D is a flop IMHO.
Believe me, I treasure removable battery feature, but who’s left building high end phones with replaceable batteries besides LG? Huawei? Lol.
Currently several less than flagship models from various manufacturers still feature removable, but it’s a dying breed. Manufacturers have stubbornly followed Apple in pursuit of the thinnest phone competition.
There are a number of Chinese brands that are decent. Not marketing in the US does not equate to not being available.
Whenever I buy a phone I spend several months researching the market. The phones I buy are always built to last and have good transceiver sections. Since 2005 I have had an HTC Wizard, a five inch Dell Streak, and the Samsung Galaxy Note2. All still work although the screen seems so tiny on the Wizard now.
I make my machines last. If I have to pay more in order to get one that can, I will. And there will always be someone servicing that market.
They may be "vivid" but they are not true to life, which is what you need and want for photography. The color gamut is all wrong. It is TOO vivid and to garish for real photography. Apple works hard to reflect reality in its screens. That's why you see iPhones being used by professional photographers and cinematographers and you don't see Android and Samsung phones being used by pros for much of anything. iPhones have even been used to video two successful feature length movies.
www.macrumors.com/2015/12/29/apple-close-oled-deal-lg-samsung/
I’m currently using the Note 4, which is nearly perfect in form and function. Of the Chinese brands, only Huawei is really worthwhile, if you trust them..
No they were working on 3d sets that didnt need glasses.
blah, blah, blah.
Resolution iPhone
1,080 x 1,920 pixels
Resolution Samsung
1,440 x 2,560 pixels
Cameras iPhone
Rear 12MP, Front 5MP
Cameras Samsung
Rear 16 MP, Front 5MP
The Note 5 bests the 6S Plus in terms of processing power and RAM. With double the RAM available, running multiple apps and switching between them, should be much smoother on the Note 5, especially when the phone’s Exynos 7420 64-bit chipset is factored in.
I can't believe this review would be so uninformed, can you? I mean, there were two successful feature length movies made with iPhones. The review did not even mention that?
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-6s-plus-vs-galaxy-note-5/
No kidding. The battery of my S6 is shot and I can’t even get a day out of it.
My 3 year old Samsung 64 inch plasma 3D just stopped working because the main power board died. Took to the repair shop and found out the TV is obsolete and parts are no longer available. I’ve been working /fighting them for a month to replace it.
I paid $3,500 and their first offer was $481.19 and I told them I would put it out by the street with a sign on it not to buy Samsung. They have now agreed to replace it with comparable new model.
See my post 31
Good for you. Glad they are doing that for you.
My basic argument is that this is not throw away money. When they offered me the money I told them i got $200 for my 2 year old iPhone 4s! Costco has the 75 inch Samsung 4K HD on sale right now for $2,250.
I agree.
I don't care what your review claims about SPECS. What counts is what can they do with those specs.
First of all, for example, your resolution comparison of the iPhone 6s and the Samsung Note 5 is meaningless when you realize that after a certain resolution the human eye cannot discern any more detail beyond what it is capable of resolving. Adding more pixels just to add numbers beyond that which can be discerned by the eye is mere advertising hype. In fact, more pixels than necessary actually slows down the graphic ability of the device to move those extra pixels around in animations for no good purpose.
Secondly, the iPhone's have had 64bit processors for far longer than any Androids have had 64 bit processors, and those processors with the dual cores, and the amount of RAM supplied have been soundly beating the four and now onto-core processors of the processors in the Android and even Windows phones and tablets for over two years.
Thirdly, and this is related to the second point, you are wrong about the smoothness and switching of apps. The iPhone 6S Plus beats the competition in all the Geekbench tests and real world tests, by quite a bit. It isn't even close.
Well, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 beats the iPhone 6S, These benchmarks are from last year, but the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus is even faster, with a nine times FASTER graphics processor. I'm including them to prove my contention the iPhone has been faster for years:
Finally, as for the cameras, the Samsung Note 5 does nicely in daylight if you like cool photo colors, but it fails in low light conditions. The iPhone 6s Plus is produces equal quality pictures but with warmer colors. . . But is much better in low light due to larger pixels with a microscopic black "wall" separating the pixels in the CCD preventing bleed over of light. The iPhone 6s Plus's motion damping system is far better than what is provided on the Samsung Note 5. Both offer 4K video recording but only the iPhone can do 240 frame per second high speed recording for slow motion native to the camera. The iPhone also provides on device video editing.
Oh, you’re another one of those who doesn’t like facts that refute your blather. You spew out nonsense and then post a ridiculous photo bomb when you are hoist on your petard. OK. Thanks for playing.
You are the one that jumped in on the Samsung post. The conversation is about Samsung. You don’t like anything but Apple. Everyone gets it and they understand you think your superior intellect supports your position. That does not logically follow.
The Samsung Note 5 is a fantastic bit of most modern technology. For you to suggest otherwise is total foolishness.
Uh, Guns, I posted the article. . . good luck with complaining to the original poster.
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