Samsung forecasts 85% drop in profit as chip sales falter
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The more useful metric is given in the article: revenue was down 14.6 percent on year.
If the story is that the market is slowing, a revenue forecast is more helpful. If the story is that Samsung is investing in R&D, sure, profit works, but it requires an explanation of where the operating income is being spent. If the story is Samsung is poorly run, then profit works, but an additional explanation of where the inefficiencies are is required.
Which history? The last 20 years have been extraordinarily lucrative in semiconductors. All eras aren't the same and today's semiconductor business - which is heavily consolidated and gigantic - is not similar to the distant past.
A normal operating profit margin for the semiconductor business is 15-30%. No healthy semiconductor business today is routinely operating at sub 5% operating income margins.
2% profit isn't a banner year, that's a bad year for any relevant semiconductor company of the last quarter century.
Intel, Taiwan Semi, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, ASML, Analog Devices, LAM, KLA, Broadcom, NXP, ON Semi
Take a look at their operating profit margins. Nobody in that sector with a normal to healthy business is operating anywhere close to a 2% profit. Nearly all the majors more routinely operate with abnormally fat profit margins compared to other types of business.
ASML has a 30%+ operating income margin.
Nvidia has historically been around 15-25% operating income margin, and are now approaching 50%.
The average operating income margin for Intel over the past 25 years is closer to 20-25%.
Taiwan Semi is at 40-45% operating income margin.
Qualcomm is at 20%.
Texas Instruments is over 40%.
Analog Devices is at 30%.
Applied Materials is at 30%. KLA is at 35-40%. LAM is at 25-30%.
Broadcom is at 40%.
NXP is at 20-30%.
ON is at 20-30%.
These are normal margins today for semis. And you could cut them in half and they're still drastically above the low single digit area.
Mine? I worked there for a decade. I suppose I should have qualified my statement by saying "Samsung semiconductors".
- fabs
- engineering design centers
Broadcom is hardly a semi company anymore after all its high-margin software acquisitions (see: VMWare, Computer Associates/"CA Technologies", etc).
Qualcomm doesn't operate any fabs that ship to customers.
Nvidia doesn't make anything.
Many of the others in your list have found profitable niches at scale that are huge value-adds to their customers. The semi space is known for consolidation and many of these players are the last survivor in their field, which lends itself to profitable operations that don't have competitors due to the costs of entry.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/2....
https://speedqueencommercial.com/en-us/products/top-load-was...
I stuck with the consumer segment because I dont want to have a weird conversation if I need service. The TC5 is electronic control, but it doesnt have all the limitation crap that other consumer units do. No lid lock & 100% fill is pretty much all I ask for these days.
The smart crap even works reasonably well if you're into it. I used to work a 2 minute drive from home and would use the "wash/dryer done" push notifications to run home and swap loads over. Not crazy useful, but it worked and had a niche.
My Bosch is now coming up to 15 years old - I had to take it apart a year or so ago to replace the heating element as it finally blew, and the inside of the machine looked new. Spare parts are still available as well.
Great products, but their after warranty service is so expensive they are often not even worth repairing, which makes their whole lasts longer pitch kind of mute. At that point they become just like every other luxury appliance maker. We were disappointed.
I’d do Bosch / Speed Queen if I had to do it again.
Now my Samsung refrigerator (a large double-door thing that we Europeans call "an American Fridge Freezer" has frozen up its condensation pipe twice in two months, so it does a little "fridge-pee" on kitchen floor every morning. This has happened about 4 times in the last 12 years, and I always plug it out, empty it, remove the inside and back panels, thaw the pipe, clean the evaporator and reassemble. Massive pain in the arse, but if I get 3 years out of it, that's worth the hassle. But twice in 2 months? Fuck that. New fridge please. (Which means spend enough time looking at reviews and specs to become a fridge salesman, and ultimately buy a Bosch anyway)
There's a reason Sony use QD-OLED panels in their top-of-the-range TV's.
Lots of vendors make their “dumb” stuff unequivocally worse than the smart stuff, but just not using the “smart”.
I think the worst part right now is over-complicated circuits to provide like button presses and stuff, then charging $400 when a small part of that circuit inevitably dies so you are forced to take your range to the metal reclaimers and get a new one.
If you dont, your tax will be to be a victim of the companies profit stratergy of planned obselesance. My dyson for instance was perfectly fine, just a peice of plastic in the handle that required you to dissassemble the whole machine was cracked. It was literly a free fix with some plastic welding a screwdriver.
PS. You can buy universal kits that will control a washer or a dryer these days in a low tech way amoung many other devices we use daily. When your smart appliance fails, you can retrofit them.
PSS. Your software/hacker spirit should not be limited to a text editor!
You have calculated cost of learning? For me apart from very basic things like oil/water change, Learning anything else would have ROI over decades if not more.
[1]: https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/washers/front-loa...
[1]: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/washers-dryers/washers-washing-...
If you follow the specs on that model - you'll see a, "Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi"
If you go to the product page on Samsung.com (https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/washers/front-loa...)
"Smart Care - Easy troubleshooting from the convenience of your smartphone.* Smart Care interacts with your washer and dryer to perform an immediate diagnosis and offer quick solutions."
"* Requires Samsung Smart Washer/Dryer App. The Samsung Smart Washer/Dryer App supports Android OS 2.3.6 or later and iOS 3 or later for iPhone models. Samsung Smart Washer/Dryer App available in App Store and Play Store."
Still, a bit further down the results this LG definitely does: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/6419621.p?skuId=6419621
first link i hit -- price was €3.552,56 Incl. BTW
meanwhile the local best buy is selling one on sale for $95 CAD. i'm all for simpler, knobs, etc., but that's a non-starter, and if i'm dropping $2000 on an appliance its going to be an espresso machine
> Easy troubleshooting from the convenience of your smartphone.
You're going to argue it doesn't have network connectivity and circuitry?
Wi-Fi Connectivity: Yes
* Touchscreen or app control
* Notifies me thru the app when a wash/dry is complete (my appliance is in a utility room, so this is really useful)
* Predicts when it will finish (and showing the time and which stage it’s on in the app)
* Monitors its own progress and will inform me if it needs more time (like if the drying needs longer due to increased load size)
* Allows pausing a wash so other items can be added
* Has detergent dispensers that are monitored and lets me know when they’re low. It also works out the right amount of detergent to use based on size of load and other info you give it (see next item)
* Has a ‘washing assistant’ which is like an ‘install wizard’ where I select the types of clothing in the drum, its level of soiling, whether I want it dried or not, and various other features - it takes all that and works out the correct programme for the items (I can do this from my phone too - which is actually more useful than it sounds!).
* When the cycle is complete and it’s waiting for you to empty it, it goes into a ‘slow turn’ mode, where it just turns the clothing over every 5 seconds or so to stop creasing.
* Notifies me when I should run the maintenance cycles to keep the machine clean
* Notifies me when it needs a software update, which I can manage from my phone.
Do you need all these things? Of course not, and I thought I’d never go for a smart appliance, but I am absolutely a convert.
[1] https://www.miele.co.uk/product/11576550/wt1-washer-dryer-wt...
Touchscreen or app control
Notifies me thru the app when a wash/dry is complete (my appliance is in a utility room, so this is really useful)
Predicts when it will finish (and showing the time and which stage it’s on in the app)
Monitors its own progress and will inform me if it needs more time (like if the drying needs longer due to increased load size)
Allows pausing a wash so other items can be added
Has detergent dispensers that are monitored and lets me know when they’re low. It also works out the right amount of detergent to use based on size of load and other info you give it (see next item)
Has a ‘washing assistant’ which is like an ‘install wizard’ where I select the types of clothing in the drum, its level of soiling, whether I want it dried or not, and various other features - it takes all that and works out the correct programme for the items (I can do this from my phone too - which is actually more useful than it sounds!).
When the cycle is complete and it’s waiting for you to empty it, it goes into a ‘slow turn’ mode, where it just turns the clothing over every 5 seconds or so to stop creasing.
Notifies me when I should run the maintenance cycles to keep the machine clean
Notifies me when it needs a software update, which I can manage from my phone.
> Which a button on the front can't do?
Especially since, to add items, you have to be physically at the machine.
To your given example: Not having to fill it with detergent every single time, sure I can see how that might be nice. Buy your detergent, dump a few liters in there and only do that again once some LED blinks that says "Add detergent" or something. How does a large house come into play?
Now when would a washer figure out that it needs more detergent? Probably in one of three cases: At the beginning of a wash cycle it might calculate that it doesn't have enough for this time. Don't start, blink LED that says "Add detergent". Or it figures out that it won't have enough after this cycle is done. Well, who cares, wait until I try to use the machine next time.
Or maybe it finds out in the middle of the cycle, when it no longer needs to feed any detergent but determined it's now "out". But it's still running (you know, rinsing, spinning etc). If an ADHD person gets a notification that the detergent level is low in the middle of the cycle while they're in the middle of a meeting or maybe finally got into some flow state and PING detergent is low: Why is that good? I'd rather just refill it when I'm out of any other context anyway and I'm trying to fill the machine and it won't start until I fill it up again. You know, like I also just filled it with clothes?
ADHD comment was about cycle being done, not detergent. My washing machine is in the garage and there is no way for me to hear when it's done. Given that I do have ADHD, I will simply forget that I'm doing any laundry. Yeah, I can set a timer on my phone, which is what I do, but notification is more convenient.
No need to be such a Luddite.
And, the fact it just works out all the settings before I get bored is good (previously I just used the same wash settings for everything, which meant creased clothes constantly - and not one pure woolen item survived its first wash!)
But no control over BIOS, firmware for over 10 devices (wifi, bluetooth, camera, SSD, touchpad, and so on), a full hidden OS running on the CPU, etc.
Every USB device has their own code running on them.
Even laptop batteries have a microcontroller that's running something totally inaccessible to you.
While you can control the OS it's running, it's not really your computer.
I’m running a custom bios on my laptop that lets me tune whatever I want. It’s literally just code, like anything else.
Look, I don’t think you know how this works. You actually have intimate control over a computer’s hardware, software, and firmware. I don’t know why you think otherwise.
[1] my personal conspiracy theory is they manufacture these defects on purpose to scare you into buying expensive warranties and slowly nudge you to buy a new fridge in 6 years.
It seems to have a mind of its own for a lot of stuff I with I had more control over
That said, not surprised by the semiconductor revenue decrease due to the trade war that happened between Korea and Japan [1] due to very acrimonious elections in SK in 2019 along with South Korea's de facto trade war with China [2] in the aftermath of the THAAD rollout (that's also why Vietnam is growing so fast - almost all Korean companies pivoted to Vietnam overnight after negotiating a very one sided free trade deal and moved operations literally overnight). Procurement lags by a couple years so the downward hit only began around 2023 from the looks of it.
Probably explains why South Korea acquiesced.
[0] - https://www.statista.com/statistics/630434/samsung-quarterly...
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_trad...
[2] - https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-south-korea-sees-tech...
Japan-Korea trade war was mostly for show and added an extra theoretical risk and bureaucracy but in actuality all the Japanese chip supply companies would have gone bankrupt had they enforced it, considering there are only two companies, TSMC and Samsung that buy supplies they sell, and TSMC wouldn't be able to magically take up Samsung's capacity. US would have been forced to keep Japanese companies supplying Samsung otherwise their high tech sectors would be in shambles / increased geopolitical risk of TSMC being sole supplier of higher end chips.
Samsung increased domestic and Chinese supply proportions in their supply chain and paid a little extra for other supplies they depend on Japanese supply companies since the trade 'sanctions' didn't block Japanese Chip companies from by-passing it via 3rd country rerouting. Some Japanese companies also built factories in Korea to bypass it.
Korea acquiesced mostly because Moon administration over-reached in trying to win brownie points from nationalist left by being "tough" on Japan which put them in a legally vulnerable position with Supreme court's judgement(by installing supreme court judges with clear ideological bend) in direct conflict with 1965 Japan-Korea agreement + increased geopolitical risk atmosphere from China/ Ukraine/Russian war.
Makes sense. That was my other hunch as well.
> Korea acquiesced mostly because Moon administration over-reached in trying to win brownie points from nationalist left by being "tough" on Japan which put them in a legally vulnerable position with Supreme court's judgement(by installing supreme court judges with clear ideological bend) in direct conflict with 1965 Japan-Korea agreement + increased geopolitical risk atmosphere from China/ Ukraine/Russian war.
Yep. Imo SK looks like it's entering a very turbulent political couple of years due to the DPK-People Power bickering. There has definitely been a fair amount of democratic backsliding due to a weaker civil society
Absolutely junk and dangerous. Could have made us sick if we hadn't paid attention to it.
We suspect our freezer is oscillating from freezing to not freezing, and I'd like to get an idea of the variance of temperatures over a 24-48 hr period.
That's how no frost works by blowing the cold but moisty air inside to the outside, this indeed raises the temperature briefly in the freezer.
But this only can become an issue if you're opening the fridge so many times a day.
The defrost cycle would set the alarm off but the analog thermometer would not move above ~40F
So once it alarmed I watched the analog thermometer go up above 45F and stay there for hours. The back of the fridge was freezing over and preventing the fridge from working correctly. I bought the repair kit from the recall / service bulletin a couple years ago so that bought me a year or so of continued use.
This has come in useful for me a number of times: https://mondiproducts.com/product/mini-thermo-hygrometer/
Funny thing to say on a tech site but, of course, not everyone cates about hardware. Who makes better RAM than Samsung? Micron?
The microwave door handle just fell off at the 6 month mark. The repairman said the entire door needs to be replaced, since the handle isn't replaceable.
The "icemaker" in the fridge begin not working. Turns out, there is a part that is nothing more than a plastic icetray with a tiny electric motor on it, and it had cracked all the way through and was dropping water into the bucket, making a big ball of ice. That part costs over $100. It's an ice tray - a small one at that. It's primary function is you know, not cracking. It's now making weird noises and barely a year old, I don't expect it'll last long. Luckily I'm selling the house this year, I wonder if I should write in disclosures that "I bought Samsung. I'm so sorry."
The freezer door handle broke off. The ice maker encrusted itself in a ball of ice, which then got caught on the drawer when I opened it and tore the ice maker out. The rails on the freezer drawer are weak, so if it's completely full it sags and won't seal all the way. Everything inside thaws out.
The fridge occasionally won't maintain temp and I open it and stuff inside is basically room temp.
There isn't a single useful part of it that isn't fucked in some way or the other.
I genuinely can't believe they managed to screw up a refrigerator this bad. They aren't that complicated.
The handle breaking enrages me. Some moron decided to make the entire assembly out of metal, except the force-bearing part. Handlebar? Metal. Mechanism that the connector hangs onto? Metal. The actual connector that beats the force of opening the drawer? Couple of miles of plastic.
Whoever made that call needs a solid slap from one of those Icelandic giants
I absolutely vouch for their appliances, I did spend good time reviewing and testing the competition and the fridge is perfect.
Actually fwiw I have never had any issue with Samsung electronics stuff (also have a galaxy tablet SE 7).
Thought it was fair to counter such negative anecdotes with a happy customer.
Neither my anecdotal experience which is worthless nor online data or reviews shows nowhere near such poor unreliability.
Hell, if your sample pool was meaningful the company would be long broke.
That's why I won't touch their stuff any more.
The technician advised me to buy from Miele, Siemens or Bosch, as Samsung apparently has lots of issues.
The unholy Trinity of appliance hell. Every brand that makes these has issues. If you get 3-5 years of use out of any of them (post ~2005) you're lucky.
I'm firmly convinced that every washing machine or dishwasher brand just wants to steal from you
I learned that a lot of machines break down because of the combination of low temperature washing and the types of soap/detergent people use. It clogs up the machines and without regular maintenance, the occasional hot wash or better soap, it destroys components.
Apparently low temperatures do not fully resolve the modern soap (which is thick and heavily perfumed), leaving behind a lot of residue. An occasional hot wash clears them.
I don't remember the name of the better soap, but basically what he says is that for clothes that are just a bit smelly but not really dirty/stained, modern soap is massive overkill. It also doesn't need all this perfume. Your clothes are fine smelling neutral, they don't have to smell like a day in the Alps.
Would really advise to talk to a local maintenance guy, they can probably explain it much better.
I believe most front loaders these days have both a self clean cycle (you're supposed to run it every month or two, it's basically an extremely long hot water rinse+spin that you don't add soap or put clothes in for), and a drain filter that should be accessible near the bottom front (expect black slime if you haven't cleaned the filter recently).
The real trouble ( and opportunities ) will arrive when all those new fabs come online in the next couple years.
Ehm...... You may be using their DRAM or NAND.
This is a cycle we have been through at least twice now.
It's a wild world, but NVDA also happened to be an extreme outlier in terms of hitting 2 gold rushes in a row.
- Thomas Jefferson
That said, I saw they were low and picked up a couple grand of intel in my playing tfsa and it’s been happy.
Ok, so was the demand higher during Covid and the market bounced back to normal?