Today, Reuters reported that due to increased competition, Samsung and Sony have stopped smartphone production in China. Particularly, today, Samsung closed the last factory making smartphones in China.
Previously, the South Korean giant has had three smartphone manufacturing plants in China. Two other smartphone factories in Shenzhen and Tianjin have been closed in 2018.
Shenzhen Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. was canceled in April 2018. Except for 6 Korean high-level executives, all employees were dismissed at the end of April, and the number of severances was about 320. Tianjin Samsung Motor Co., Ltd. officially ceased production on December 31, 2018, and more than 2,600 employees were transferred or resigned.
Anyways, this is not surprising. Because of the rise of Chinese smartphone brands, foreign brands such as Samsung and Apple have been seeing quite difficult times. We mean this closure is related to the company’s market share lost in the Chinese market. For example, the company currently accounts for only 1% of the Chinese smartphone market, compared to 15% in 2013. Most of the market shares were taken over by companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi.
Sony is also closing its smartphone factory in China. The source said the company will close its factory in Beijing and will only produce smartphones in Thailand in the future. But if this is an expected move from Sony because of its exit from the smartphone business, we have been waiting for Samsung to do something to fix the situation. Instead, like Apple, it decided to leave China, and move to India.