Today smartphone manufacturers Samsung and HTC released their quarterly results with both reporting falling margins, does this mean the boom days of the smartphone have come to an end?
As industry analyst Asymco reports, Apple are also suffering decline margins as component prices increase, ironically some of those parts come from Samsung.
The question posed by Reuters in reporting Samsung’s decline is ”has the smartphone business peaked?”
It may well be that the glory days of the smartphone industry have come to an end as cheaper Chinese phones enter the market.
Just as the PC industry is being disrupted after three decades of growth, could it be the smartphone sector is suffering a similar change after just seven years?
The percentage of the population using smartphones is already high and many are unwilling to continuously purchase the latest model for only incremental advantage. Combine those reasons with the increased costs you mentioned and it is no surprise to me the days of ever expanding profit may have come to an end.