Smartphone Delays
The most popular Samsung (005930.KS) smartphone last year was the Galaxy A51, a mid-priced (~$400) phone that was released on December 16 in 2019, with a 5G version released in April of last year (~$500). The higher-tier, Galaxy A71 ($550) was released in January of last year with its 5G version ($600) released in April 2020. Samsung has announced this year’s 4G versions and one 5G version of those two popular Samsung phones, but there are some issues regarding when they will be released globally, with the A72 5G version rumored but officially unannounced.
The A52 5G is available in the US and some parts of Europe and while it is expected to be released in Korea next month, no hard date has been released to Korean retailers from Samsung as of yet. While some believe that Samsung is staggering the release of all A Series smartphones this year to maximize sales, some Samsung suppliers are indicating that a shortage of application processors designed by Qualcomm (QCOM) are causing delays in the release schedule for both the A52 and A72 smartphones.
Those application processors, while designed by Qualcomm, are actually produced by Samsung using an 8nm process. Qualcomm’s CEO recently indicated he thought the semiconductor shortage would last through the end of this year and Samsung’s CEO stated that there was a serious imbalance in supply and demand of chips. Given the shutdown of Samsung’s Austin fab, we expect that all of Samsung’s remaining fabs in Korea are operating as close to full capacity as possible tomake up for the capacity issue in Austin, but it looks like it is not enough to meet even Samsung’s own demand.
The A52 5G is available in the US and some parts of Europe and while it is expected to be released in Korea next month, no hard date has been released to Korean retailers from Samsung as of yet. While some believe that Samsung is staggering the release of all A Series smartphones this year to maximize sales, some Samsung suppliers are indicating that a shortage of application processors designed by Qualcomm (QCOM) are causing delays in the release schedule for both the A52 and A72 smartphones.
Those application processors, while designed by Qualcomm, are actually produced by Samsung using an 8nm process. Qualcomm’s CEO recently indicated he thought the semiconductor shortage would last through the end of this year and Samsung’s CEO stated that there was a serious imbalance in supply and demand of chips. Given the shutdown of Samsung’s Austin fab, we expect that all of Samsung’s remaining fabs in Korea are operating as close to full capacity as possible tomake up for the capacity issue in Austin, but it looks like it is not enough to meet even Samsung’s own demand.
Samsung Galaxy A52 5G - Source: Samsung Figure 3 - Samsung Galaxy A72 5G (Unofficial) - Source: GSMArena
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