​Samsung Electronics has been winding its way through negotiations as to where it wants to place its proposed $17b semiconductor fab, with sites in Texas, New York, and Arizona in contention.  Samsung’s Vice-Chairman is in the US, assumedly to finalize those plans which have been ongoing since May.  It seems that one of the three sites in Texas, the Manor School District, has bowed out, leaving a site near Taylor, Texas and Austin, where it already has a fab, as the final contenders in Texas.  Samsung is expected to begin construction of the fab, wherever it winds up in 1Q 2022, with production slated for late 2024.  A decision (announced or not) is expected this week.

​Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has been a leader in the 5G smartphone race, releasing the 1st 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10 5G in April of 2019, but has been lagging behind Chinese brands, who have pushed the technology given the aggressive 5G base station buildout that has taken place across the country.  Samsung has lost share in China, not only because of 5G, although that is seen as a contributing factor.  Based on Samsung’s current 2021 smartphone lineup (there are at least two more models slated for release this year), 5G capabilities are available in all flagship models (Z Series & S Series), but only in 33% of Samsung’s mid-tier (A Series) models, 27.3% of its lower-priced models (M Series), and 33% of its lowest tier models (F Series).
Samsung is expected to push 5G into all of its 2022 A series models next year in order to attract more users in both China and Europe, where EU members have a ‘unified’ plan for 5G buildout through 2027, have implemented 5G in at least 24 of the 27 EU countries, and are expected to have almost 36m subscribers by the end of this year (Western Europe).  Samsung will continue to provide 4G LTE versions of such new models for those areas where 5G has yet to be implemented.  While 5G is a bit of a different animal from other smartphone features, this is in keeping with Samsung’s plan to push down features that might have appeared only in flagship phones in the past, to lower priced models and will likely push down high pixel cameras, larger batteries, and IP67 (water/dustproof rating) to all or many of the A series phones. 
Samsung will also be pushing the connectivity aspect of the company’s smartphones, expanding their ability to share information with other Samsung products, from Smart Tags™ to appliances, and given the broad Samsung CE ecosystem, using the smartphone platform as a control point for many of those products, is an advantage few of its competitors have.   Moving such connectivity from flagship phones down to mid-tier phones will be a viable way for Samsung to counter Chinese smartphone brands, most of whom do not have more than a few CE products outside of smartphones.  The trend with Chinese CE companies is to use a ‘smart screen’ (aka a connected TV) to control and monitor CE products, but this limits consumer reach.  Given that smartphones are rarely out of reach to consumers, a phone that offers connectivity to a wide selection of CE products become more indispensable to consumers, and bringing that down to phones under $500 should help Samsung to regain some share in 2022.  LG Electronics (066570.KS) has a similar connectivity system (ThinQ) but will no longer be producing smartphones.

The big guessing game in the CE space is whether the break in TV panel prices will give TV brands the ability to offer substantial discounts during the holidays and stimulate TV set sales, which have been and are expected to be lackluster.  Component shortages, inventory prices, transportation bottlenecks, and TV panel prices all play into such calculations, and while each brand has their own issues, we took a look at the US CPI (un-seasonally adjusted TV index) and how that relates to actual aggregate TV panel prices to get some understanding of where we are in the cycle, and the possibility for a better than expected holiday season.
The simplest comparison was the CPI TV Index vs. the aggregated price of TV panels since January 2020, as shown in Fig. 1.  As can be seen, the TV CPI index lags the index by about a month, with TV panel prices peaking in July and the TV CPI peaking in August, however the TV CPI did not follow the rising TV panel prices seen in the latter half of 2020.  It was not until the beginning of 2021 that the TV CPI began to track TV panel price increases and while the more recent TV CPI data better reflects the change in TV panel prices that began in September, we expect the TV CPI will take longer to readjust to lower panel prices.   TV panel prices have declined 35.3% from their peak while the TV CPI has declined less than a percent, and while this is not a real comparison as the bases are so far apart, at least from a visual point of view, they seem to be tracking more closely over the last three months than in the last 18 months.
But when it comes to consumers, TV panel prices and the TV CPI are far less relevant than what they see when walking into Best Buy (BBY) or are checking TV prices on Amazon (AMZN).  While underneath the loose budgets that consumers will try to hold to when viewing possible TV or other CE choices lies wage inflation/deflation, a smattering of knowledge, much brand hype, and a desire not to buy something that is overpriced, if something looks like a good bargain, it attracts attention.  In order to see whether TV panel price reductions and TV CPI decreases have made an impact on ‘real’ TV prices, we took a simple survey.  We traced the pricing for the 10 top selling TVs at Best Buy to measure where they currently stand relative to their high and low points.  Since Best Buy does not provide historic data, we used pricing on Amazon to trace pricing, and while this was more often 3rd party pricing, rather than Amazon’s, it does give a reasonable representation of the pricing cycles of these TVs.
Just to clarify the data set, the top ten ‘Best Sellers’ at Best Buy consisted of five Samsung (005930.KS) TVs, two LG (066570.KS) TVs, and three Insignia TVs, which are Best Buy’s house brand.  Of the 10, three were 2021 models, five were 2020 models, and two were 2018 (!) models, with one of the LG models being an OLED TV.  In terms of TV size, there were two 75” and two 65” TVs, with the rest with one each (75”, 58”, 55”, 40”, 32”, 24”), with only two being 4K TVs, five being UHD resolution, and the remaining ones HD.  The average price for the ten models was $585 on Best Buy, although leaving out the OLED TV brings that average down to $450.   Prices on Amazon were typically equal to or higher relative to Best Buy, with the average on Amazon 8.9% above Best Buy, but much of the differences came from the two 70” models, which were 29.2% and 66.3% higher on Amazon, likely because they are in relatively short supply.  
What was most interesting was that while the Amazon prices were down 22.5% from their high points on average and up 17.8% on average from their low points, the current prices of the ten sets on Amazon were 8.9% higher than the current Best Buy prices and the current Best Buy prices were only 0.2% higher than the average lowest price point (historically) on Amazon.  If nothing else, it points to the fact that the ‘best sellers’ at Best Buy are better deals than even the lowest historic prices on Amazon.  While the data proves the point that it is certainly better to shop for bargains on-line, particularly among Best Buy’s ‘top sellers’, than to walk into a store and wander through aisles of TVs with a salesman, it does not give any indication as to how much discounting is being done across the broad spectrum of TV sets sold in the US, despite the ‘previous price’ listed for each set at Best Buy.  We believe those ‘previous prices’ should be ignored, considering some of those sets were over two years old and have seen many short pricing peaks and valleys that had little to do with actual consumer prices. 
We also looked at the 10 most and least expensive models offered at Best Buy, however, most were not available on Amazon and price tracking data was therefore not available but just in passing, the average price of the 10 most expensive TVs at Best Buy was $17,155, with the top of the range set by a Samsung 98” 8K set at $60,000 and the least expensive a Samsung 85” 4K TV at $5,500.  At the other end of the spectrum the 10 lowest priced TV sets at Best Buy averaged $121.30, with the most expensive being a $160 Toshiba 32” TV and the least expensive being an Insignia 19” TV at $80.
All in, it will take a much wider sample to see whether the impact of TV panel price decreases will be able to work their way to consumers by the end of the year.  As set producers built inventory against a fear of continuing component shortages, they built in months of higher cost inventory that still has to be worked through or written off at the end of the year.  With three months of lower cost TV panel inventory, the cost average will come down, but given the multitude of other factors, particularly raw materials, semiconductors, and logistics, we expect much of the effects of TV panel price reductions will be seen in 1Q, making the post-holiday period a more likely place to be looking for real TV bargains.  TV panel producers are already seeing the effects of the price declines and have begun to lower utilization rates, which will continue to pressure y/y comparisons, but the bigger question is whether TV set brands will keep any margin they gain, or pass it on to consumers to move units.  Given the margin issues that have faced TV set brands for much of this year, we expect the former but hope for the latter.

According to the Korean trade press, Samsung Electronics is expected to be launching 52 new models of smartphones in 2022, with 67m units being part of Samsung’s flagship line, which includes the Galaxy S line and the Z Fold/Flip line.  Additionally, 91m mid-priced models are included in Samsung’s target, along with 176m low priced units, with a total of 49m units being produced in cooperation with OEMs.  While there is some contention concerning how the unit volumes will break out among the price tiers, the total unit target is between 321m and 334m.  The lower estimate breakout is shown below and includes 2021 models that will continue to be produced in 2022.  While there are estimates of when certain models will be released, we expect much will depend on component availability and put little weight in such early timelines.
We note that Samsung’s targets are aggressive, with foldables rising from ~7m units this year to 13m in 2022, but the total of over 300m units has been unreachable since 2017 and carries considerable skepticism across the industry.  While much of the sales value is in Samsung’s flagship and mid-tier lines, it seems foolish to expect such large shipment volumes on an overall basis, especially with the specter of component issues adding uncertainty to the mix.  We expect the recent examination of Samsung’s mobile business by corporate management might be leading to the more aggressive targets, but given how targets have been lowered this year across almost all smartphone brands, we would expect Samsung’s optimism might be a bit misplaced.

As we continue to follow Samsung’s (005930.KS) Mini-LED QD offering prices in the US into the holidays, we see two new entrants into the mix.  The first is one that has appeared and then became unavailable, a 43” version of the 90A series (Mini-LED/QD 4K), which has returned at its original price of $1,300 and a new model in the same group, a 98” Mini-LED/QD 4K set that enters at $15,000.  While the smaller set is in a normal price range, the 98” set is not and the simple calculation of cost/in2 shows that for an increase of 32.9% in surface area over the equivalent 85” set, you pay 355% more.  This comes to $1.07/in2 for the 85” set and $3.65 for the 98” set, which makes obvious the fact that prices for newly released TVs are usually their highest lifecycle point.
On a more general basis, much of the price reductions seen in our most recent check have taken place in the 4K Mini-LED/QD category and among sets that are just quantum dot enhanced, but looking at the entire list (excluding the two new entries), all but two of 33 (93.9%) are at their lowest point since initial release (5/20/21), with the average price decline 27.3%.  The models with the greatest declines fall into the 8K Mini-LED/QD 900A Series (Top of the line), where prices have fallen 34.0%, and the middle price tier of 4K Quantum Dot sets, where prices are now 31.4% lower than initial release.  When looking at all Mini-LED/QD TVs, the average price is now down31.7% and looking at all QD only TVs, the average price is down 23.6%.  The average price reduction on those sets that saw m/m reductions was -12.3% and across all sets (including those that remained flat) the price reduction was 6.3%.
As we get closer to Black Friday (11/26), we expect another round of price reductions although it seems Samsung has most recently been focusing on lower priced sets, likely to meet unit volume targets.  While we cannot check actual stock at Samsung USA, we did check to see how many models could be shipped ‘next day’, which would indicate stock at a nearby Samsung warehouse or distribution center.  Of the 33 models checked (neither of the two new models were available), 66.6% were available for next day shipping with the remaining 33% shipping within 14 days, other than two models (8K 85” Mini-LED/QD top-of-the line $5,500  and 65” 4K Mini-LED/QD $1,700) that would not ship until 12/3/21, which would indicate stock is readily available for most models.
With 18 days to the first big holiday in the US, we would expect at least one more round of price reductions past the current discounts, which Samsung calls ‘Early Black Friday Deals’, and as the holiday selling season this year covers even more ‘holiday selling days’, given the progressively earlier ‘pre-pre holiday’ discounting already seen, we expect the Samsung Mini-LED/QD and QD only TV line will continue to see price reductions through the end of the year.

​As we noted in our 10-18-21 note, a number of the factories in Ho Chi Minh City had been under partial quarantine or reduced staffing as the city faced a number of COVID-19 outbreaks in September and October.  Last month it was estimated that Samsung’s (005930.KS) plant in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park 10 miles outside of the city, was operating with about 50% of its normally ~7,000 employees, with the company helping those workers who wished to stay during travel restrictions by providing local sleeping and eating arrangements.
The factory, which assembles both Samsung TVs and home appliances has been in operation since 2016 and generated over $5.3b in revenue last year, making it the 2nd largest Samsung assembly facility.  Samsung generating more than $56b in export sales in Vietnam and produced over 19m units last year, so low level production at this factory does have a material effect of Samsung’s overall CE sales, which grew 0.1% y/y in 3Q, with the TV segment declining 5%.  Expectations were that the factory would be back to full production by the end of this month as the city eases travel restrictions, but it seems that Samsung has been working with the local government to accelerate that timeline and has brought the lines back to full production last week, considerably ahead of schedule.
Over the last five years TV shipments in the 4th quarter averaged 28.8% of the full year total, but that included 2020 which saw an unusual 2Q as government stimulus checks pulled in normal seasonality.  Looking at the four years without 2020, the average is just under 31%, making it essential that Samsung squeeze out as much as possible from this factory in order to meet its unit volume targets.  Samsung has been fighting a battle against both its local rival LG Electronics (066570.KS) and Chinese brands, particularly TCL (000100.CH) who has been accepted by a number of US retailers over the last two years and has become a major player in the North American market, while Xiaomi (1810.HK) has expanded significantly in China and Asian markets.  

​As we have noted in a number of recent notes the display industry, particularly the LCD segment, has been leveraging itself toward the production of IT products (notebooks, monitors, and tablets) and away from LCD TV panel production.  Samsung Display (pvt) has sold or shuttered much of its TV panel business, keeping its only large panel production lines open at the request of parent Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), a much more long-term decision made back in 2019, while Chinese brands continue to build out large panel capacity, with a near-term push toward using that and existing capacity to produce more IT panels.  On a m2 basis, smaller panels get a higher ASP so some of the decision to allocate production resources comes from such motivation, but more from relatively mundane global TV demand growth, especially as compared to the increased demand for IT products stimulated by COVID-19.
The recent price decreases seen for TV panels has begun to justify Samsung Display’s original large panel capacity reduction thesis and also helps to justify other panel producers’ decisions to increase capacity exposure to IT products, but along with that decision comes the higher risk toward IT panel pricing.  Until recently that has not been an issue as IT panel prices continued to rise as TV panel prices declined, with continuing demand from brans, but two factors seem to be changing, both of which increase that risk further.  Display driver shortages have been pushing brands to build IT panel inventory.  Fear of a lack of product during the holiday season put brands in the position of paying up to get display module units, with targets based on the strong demand seen over the last year, but over the last two months demand seems to have weakened, first showing up as a slowdown in Chromebook shipments, and then as a broader slowdown in notebook demand. 
There are some technical reasons for this slowdown as students begin to return to classrooms and remote schooling programs wind down, and display drivers have become more available, yet notebook panel shipments have continued to be strong, at least through 3Q.  We expect that some of that 3Q IT order strength came from panel producers filling customer orders that had been delayed due to component shortages or had been under allocation, but hints from panel producers on 3Q calls that indicated a shift toward customers that supply IT products to corporate customers and away from those supplying retail, lead us to see a bit more concern about IT order patterns and there sustainability.
Typically (5 year average) the 4th quarter sees notebook panel shipments decline ~0.3% q/q but we have seen expectations for 4Q notebook panel shipments as low as -1.5%, and while we expect that might represent the extreme, anything significantly above the average would be troubling and would indicate potential notebook panel price weakness.  At just under 34% of large panel quarterly unit volume, weaker notebook panel prices could jeopardize 4Q panel producer sales, especially if TV panel prices continue to decline.  Notebook panel production plans are expected to be up between 15% and 19% in 2022, while recent expectations for notebook demand next year is for less than 1% unit volume growth.  Panel producers always have the option of shifting production to monitors or back to TV panels if prices dictate, but it is beginning to look like a game of musical chairs.

Each year the lead-in to Black Friday gets extended, with deal ads starting in October and the actual Black Friday (11/26) day itself starting for many retailers on Wednesday, November 25.  Last year many brick & mortar retailers gave workers Black Friday off and closed stores to avoid crowds during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and relied on increased on-line sales to make up the in-store selling day loss.  While we expect there might still be some store closings, on-line shopping has already become so ingrained in our culture, especially in the 25 – 34 year old bracket, that missing the overnight camp-outs in front of Wal-Mart (WMT) will likely not be missed by many.  In fact, a recent survey of 1,000 consumers who plan to shop between September and Cyber-Monday indicated that only 30% of respondents thought that stores should still remain open and have door buster sales, with 39% preferred the stores to stay open but have no door buster sales, while 31% stated that they would prefer the stores to remain closed on Black Friday. 
On a more general basis, an Offers.com (ZD) survey indicated that 20% of shoppers expected to increase spending during the holidays this year while 21% expected to reduce spending, so the overall consumer spending pattern will likely remain on track with recent years.  That said, now that the press has taken up the story on supply chain issues that might affect holiday deliveries, Black Friday early discounting serves the purpose of lengthening the time when orders might be placed, which gives retailers more wiggle room on delivery schedules, so said supply chain issues do lend some legitimacy to an extended holiday season, but at the same time consumers have also become used to those last minute ‘Super Savings Discounts’ that pop-up on peak buying days, which might not look as attractive if discounting has been in place for over a month.  That, coupled with consumer electronics’ inflationary characteristics this year could make it a bit more difficult for consumers to find the bargains they have become used to, especially if there are delays in delivery times.

While it is impossible to get an accurate picture of holiday CE deals across a large swath of products, we look back at one area where we have hard data, Samsung’s (005930.KS) Mini-LED/QD TV line, which we have been tracking since the products were announced in May.  As a reminder, this was the first year Samsung has offered a TV line that was based on Mini-LEDs, which gives us the opportunity to see how effectively Samsung priced the models at the onset, and how those prices have been trending to date, especially as we head into the holiday season.  We check Samsung’s Mini-LED/QD TV prices roughly every two weeks, although when we are contacted by Samsung as to ‘price drops on products you have viewed’, we check to see if there are any unusual pricing movements.
Based on our data, it seems that Samsung has already begun its holiday discounting program, at least for its Mini-LED/QD TV line, as the most recent tally has indicated that prices for much of the line have again reached their lowest point since release in late May.  In fact of the 33 models we track, 29 are at their lowest point since release, while 2 are at their highest (actually unchanged from the initial price) and the top of the Mini-LED/QD line (8K) is now 36.7% below the initial price, dropping over 10% over the last week, while the 4K Mini-LED/QD are down less, but also saw price drops between 2.8% and 8.2%.  Samsung’s quantum dot only sets fared a bit better, down between 0.0% (low-end QD only line) and 4.4% (hi-end QD only). 
While these prices, especially at the high-end of the line are significantly discounted from initial list price, they are also competing with Mini-LED TV price leader TCL (000100.CH), who is on their 3rd Mini-LED/QD iteration, and LG Electronics (066570.KS), who has pricing more comparable to Samsung.  TCL has far less name recognition in the US than either Samsung or LG, but has gained much recognition as a low-cost alternative to premium sets from other major TV brands at retailer Best Buy (BBY).  While feature-to-feature comparisons are difficult, TCL’s Series 6 Mini-LED/QD line directly competes with Samsung’s 4K Mini-LED/QD line and while TCL offers a limited number of comparative models, they are priced far below even Samsung’s lowest tier Mini-LED/QD sets.  TCL has already discounted their Mini-LED TV sets from list, so we would expect less discounting going forward, but with models between 46.2% and 51.9% below Samsung’s comparative pricing, the difference to consumers is obvious and continues to keep Samsung Mini-LED/QD prices under pressure.

​According to the local press in Ho Chi Minh City, a number of major CE companies located in or around areas affected by the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam, are expecting to resume full production by the end of November.  A number of these companies are located in Saigon Hi-Tech Park, about 10 miles from the center of Ho Chi Minh City, and is the home of the Vietnam operations of Intel (INTC), Jabil (JBL) and Air Liquide (AI.FP), and about 10 miles from Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) Vietnam plant.
 Locals indicate that many of the large plants in the Saigon Hi-Tech park are operating at ~70% capacity due to travel restrictions, but are expected to see full production within the next few weeks.  Samsung’s factory, which shuttered ~19% of its lines as workers at its main complex were reduced by more than half, and was providing local sleeping arrangements for workers to entice them to remain at the factory.  Samsung generated more than $56b in export sales last year and had been on a pace to exceed that this year, with the possibility still existing if they can resume full production quickly.
Ho Chi Minh City itself began to reopen on a conditional basis this month and has been seeing strong demand from consumers who have been under extended social distancing and quarantining.  However, with factories still operating at reduced rates, shortages have been seen in retail consumer electronics, even after a number of retailers had been building larger than usual inventories in anticipation of the increased demand.  Local CE retailers indicate that shortages continue with laptops and tablets, and even smartphones more recently, where Chinese smartphone brands are in shorter supply than those from Samsung and Apple (AAPL), due to power issues in parts of China.  In all cases however, supply does not meet demand.
One of the large retailers gave the example that they sell ~15,000 Samsung devices every day, but Samsung has been able to supply only 30,000 to 40,000 per week during the lockdown, and other retailers indicate that all iPhone models are in short supply, with iPhone 11 (released 9/2019!) deliveries delayed until next year and iPhone 13 (9//21) deliveries at ~50% of the order rate currently.  Smartphones priced below $265 are out of stock at most retailers and laptops in a similar price range, which are typically used for on-line learning, were sold out quickly when they appeared, as Ho Chi Minh City students will be studying on-line for at least the remainder of the year.
With Ho Chi Minh City representing ~80% of Vietnam’s COVID-19 cases as of last month, and fears that due to the exclusion of rapid test results in government figures, the number of cases during the outbreak peak were underreported, the city was on lockdown for roughly three months.  As of the beginning of October restaurants were able to serve take-out meals again and essential businesses were able to reopen.  Residents having at least one dose of vaccine within 14 days or having recovered from COVID-19 within the last 6 months were allowed to leave their houses, and while inner city checkpoints were being removed, security personnel are continuing to patrol the city and travelers must submit a request to the Transportation Department to enter.  All restrictions on construction projects, office parks, and export zones are also allowed to reopen, although indoor activities are limited to 10 people if unvaccinated and 70 if vaccinated and public transport will operate at 50% capacity, however bars, spas, and cinemas remain suspended.  Most travel guide services tell those entering the city to “remain cooperative if approached and questioned by law enforcement officers and make allowances for business disruptions” which seems to give a good indication as to how things are progressing in the city.

​Many Samsung (005930.KS) smartphones did not use Samsung’s own chipsets, including high-end flagship models.  The top of the line Samsung Galaxy S21 5G models all contained a Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon 888 chipset if it was sold in the US and China, while other regions received the same phone with Samsung’s own Exynos 2100 chipset, which would seem rather unusual, but has been the case for many of Samsung’s smartphones.  In fact, much of Samsung’s smartphone line, including foldable use application processors produced by Qualcomm or Mediatek (2454.TT), and only Chinese brand Vivo (pvt) has released a few models with the Samsung Exynos chipset.  It seems odd that Samsung’s self-produced chipset would not appear in many of its smartphones, as it assumedly would be less expensive than purchasing an outside AP, but there have been problems that have led to a low adoption rate for the in-house AP, and Samsung aims to change that going forward.
Things got so bad that a petition on Change.org in April of last year requested that Samsung stop using the Exynos processor on many international versions and consistently use the Qualcomm processor, as “The Exynos phones are slower, have worse battery life, worse camera sensors (a separate issue) and processing, get hotter and throttle faster, amongst other issues.”  Comparison tests on sites like AnTuTu and GeekBench confirmed the weaknesses when compared (Exynos 990) to the Qualcomm 865 and Samsung’s share of the AP market has been declining and our quick check of the Exynos’s use in Samsung’s own phones seems to show a big push in 2019 and then a decline in its use in 2020 and this year.
One issue that has been cited for the problems associated with the Exynos AP is that Samsung had been using its own custom CPU cores (Mongoose) produced at its Texas facility, which as a single core outperformed Qualcomm, but when combined with other functions in the SoC, the package fell short in comparisons.  Samsung closed its custom CPU lines at the end of 2019 and adopted ARM based CPU design, similar to that used by Qualcomm and others.  Samsung has also been working with AMD (AMD) to improve graphics performance and will use AMD’s next generation graphics processing unit in the upcoming Galaxy S22 release expected in January.  Samsung is also said to be working on a fix for the heat problem, which is caused by 5G communication chips.
The S22 is still expected to be released with both the Exynos and Qualcomm options, but Samsung is expected to increase the use of the next generation Exynos processor in a larger portion of its smartphone line, which is also expected to have a unit volume target that is ~20% higher than this year.  While it is still early for setting 2022 targets, we expect some of the expansion of the Exynos AP is due to the shortages facing the semiconductor industry which could limit the availability of APs to Samsung.  By using its own AP, it can bypass some of the issues that could arise in 2022, but the comparisons between the ‘new’ Exynos and both Qualcomm and Mediatek must be much closer if Samsung does not want to face continued criticism.  By switching to ARM cores, they have narrowed the gap, but if they are going to expand the Exynos across the line, it better be as good as or better than the others.