Prolonged Market Downturn
The market share of Samsung Electronics’ flagship products, including semiconductors, smartphones, and TVs, fell altogether in the first half of this year. In particular, the share of its DRAM, the company’s core business item in the semiconductor field, hit a nine-year low, although it remained the world’s No. 1.
According to industry sources and the first-half disclosure report released by the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on Aug. 15, Samsung Electronics’ estimated share of the global DRAM market stood at 41.9 percent in the first half of this year based on data from market research firm DRAM Exchange. This represented a drop of 1.6 percentage points from the same period last year (43.5 percent). It is the lowest in nine years for the first half of the year after reaching 38.9 percent in 2014.
The decline is attributed to a combination of customer inventory adjustments, lower shipments, and a drop in sell prices stemming from a prolonged downturn in the memory market. In the first half of the year, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor (DS) division’s inventory assets amounted to 33.6896 trillion won (US$25.1769 billion) with a surge of 12.1817 trillion won (56.6 percent) compared to 21.5079 trillion won in the same period of 2022.
Samsung’s share of the smartphone market in the first half of the year was 21.2 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from 22.6 percent in the same period of last year. The drop is blamed on high global prices, geopolitical risks such as the crisis in Ukraine, and supply chain instability, which led to a sharp drop in smartphone demand. Its smartphone panel market share also fell by 2.3 percentage points from 51.1 percent to 48.8 percent during this period. Market research firm TechInsights forecasts that the global smartphone market will shrink from 1.2 billion units in 2022 to 1.16 billion units in 2023.
Samsung’s TV market share inched down. In the first half of this year, the Korean TV giant’s share of the global TV market was 31.1 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from the same period last year (31.6 percent). Samsung Electronics plans to expand its market influence by focusing on ultra-large and ultra-high-definition premium TV models with its flagship neo quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) TV.