Samsung in Q4 and CY 2011: The Guessing Game ...
Trying to count who sold the most smartphones is a difficult business. That’s mostly due to Samsung’s decision to stop releasing unit sales figures for its smartphone sales. The company has taken to releasing sales growth percentages, and market research firms are basing projections of how many phones Samsung shipped last quarter and all of last year on these percentages.
- Erica Ogg, GigaOM - tinyurl.com
Samsung Electronics Telecommunications division enjoyed an exceptionally fine and well executed calendar and fiscal year in 2011. Samsung Telecoms sells a modest amount of mobile wireless infra primarily in the captive South Korean market but also elsewhere. In Mobile Devices which constitute the vast majority of their sales they closed ground on market leader Nokia in handset unit terms but overtook them in both revenue and profit and also overtook and outsold Nokia in smartphone units. Whether or not they overtook Apple, the market leader in both handset revenue sales and profitability and smartphone revenue sales and profitability, in smartphone unit sales is anyone's guess, but both Strategy Analytics and IHS iSuppli guessed that they did, if only by a whisker. Strategy Analytics guesses that in Q4 2011 Apple outsold Samsung by ½ million smartphone units but in CY 2011 Samsung sold 4.3 million more smartphones than Apple (97.4 million to 93 million). IHS iSuppli. OTOH guesses that in Q4 2011 Apple outsold Samsung by 1 million smartphone units but in CY 2011 Samsung sold 2 million more smartphones than Apple (95 million to 93 million).
tinyurl.com (Strategy Analytics)
tinyurl.com (IHS iSuppli)
Q1 2011 was the last quarter that Samsung Electronics publicly gave a unit sell in number for 'handsets' which in that quarter included all mobile devices: feature phones; bada quasi-smartphones which some classify as a smartphone and some as an advanced and smarter feature phone; Android and WinPhone 7 powered smartphones; and Android tablet MIDs and hybrid tablet/smartphones. Subsequently any 3rd party numbers for Samsung 'handset' sell-in and smart device sell-in were guesstimated and extrapolated by 3rd parties from rather vague references to percentage QoQ increases in shipments of total devices v. the prior quarter. In the final 3 quarters of the year Samsung provided no specific unit volume numbers for total mobile devices, or a breakdown of the unit numbers by device category. The conference calls in each quarter shed no light on unit volumes beyond what was stated in the presentation slides which contained no unit volume or ASP information.
• Samsung Electronics Telecom (Mobile Devices) Business Segment in Q1 2011 ...
tinyurl.com
Last April Samsung advised that in Q1 they shipped (i.e. sold into channels and billed) 70 million handsets valued at 10.14 Trillion Won ($9.17 Billion USD) with an operating margin for the segment (including infrastructure sales: i.e. devices + infra)) of 13.5% (~$1.43 Billion USD); that the unit number of handset shipments reported included tablet MIDs; and that their smartphone volumes increased to 18% of those shipments (i.e. ~12.6 million 'smartphones') but they did not advise whether that 18% included tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Personally I assume that they did and I further assume that in succeeding quarters tablets are included in any estimates that 3rd parties made for Samsung 'handsets' and 'smartphones'. The ASP of all Samsung mobile devices shipped including tablet MIDS was ~$131 USD ($9.17 Billion/70 Million units).
• Samsung Electronics Telecom (Mobile Devices) Business Segment in Q2 2011 ...
tinyurl.com
In July 2011 Samsung advised that their 'handset' shipments in Q2 which presumably still included tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 7.1 increased by a "high 10%" amount YoY and high single-digit amount QoQ and their feature phones shipments decreased slightly QoQ. They also advised that the ASP of their mobile devices had a low 10% increase QoQ (i.e. >$144). The total mobile device sell-in for Q2 produced revenue of 11.69 Trillion Won ($10.57 Billion USD) with operating margins of 13.7% (~$1.55 Billion USD OP) for devices + infra).
• Samsung Electronics Telecom (Mobile Devices) Business Segment in Q3 2011 ...
tinyurl.com
In October 2011 Samsung advised that their 'handset' shipments in Q3 which presumably still included tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and new Galaxy Tab 8.9 increased by a high 20% YoY and low 20% QoQ and their feature phones shipments increased by "over 10% QoQ, driven by full-touch phones." They also advised that the ASP of their mobile devices had a slight increase QoQ (i.e. >$144) "despite enhanced price competition, due to improved product mix amid strong smartphone sales. In Q3 Samsung "achieved record quarterly sales and operating profit along with improved operating margin."
Samsung's total mobile device sell-in for Q3 2011 produced revenue of 14.42 Trillion Won ($12.24 Billion USD) with operating margins of 16.9% (~$2.069 Billion USD OP) for devices + infra..
• Samsung Electronics Telecom (Mobile Devices) Business Segment in Q4 2011 ...
tinyurl.com
In January 2012 Samsung advised that their mobile device shipments resulted in strong earnings enhanced by high-end & mass market smartphone line-ups and that global shipments of smartphones increased approximately 30% QoQ with expansion of high-end 'smartphones' (the Galaxy Note hybrid tablet/smartphone, Nexus, etc.) and mass-market Galaxy, Ace, etc . model line-ups. No specific references to feature phones or tablets (other than the Note) were made and it is anybody's guess just how many 'handsets.' smartphones, and tablet units were sold.
Strategy Analytics preliminary year ending guesstimates were that 95.0 million (21.3%) of the 445 million handsets they estimated were sold into channels Q4 2011 of which 36.5 million were smartphones were sold in by Samsung. They have not publicly addressed or guessed how many of those millions they guesstimated were tablet MIDs if any, Separately they guesstimated that 10.5 million of the 26.8 million tablets sold into channels in Q4 were Android powered but did not attempt to guesstimate Samsung's contribution.
Samsung's total mobile device sell-in for Q4 2011 produced revenue of 17.18 Trillion Won ($14.84 Billion USD) and total Samsung Telecoms segment revenue was 17.82 Trillion Won ($15.4 Billion USD) with operating profit of 2.64 Trillion Won (~$2.28 Billion USD) and ops margin of 14.8% for devices + infra.
• Samsung Electronics Telecommunication's Business Segment in 2011 ...
tinyurl.com (same as abovce link)
While we have very little transparency or granularity on Samsung Mobile Device unit volumes this is a breakdown of Samsung Electronics Telecom segment's reported revenue by quarter for 2011 in the South Korean Won and US Dollar. Currency conversions were made for each quarter using the Interbank rate at the end of each quarter and the annual number at the rate in effect at year end.
Total Telecoms Devices Infra TCom Ops Profit Ops Margin
Trl KRW Bil USD Tr KRW Bil USD Tr KRW Bil USD Tr KRW Bil USD %
======= ======= ====== ======== ====== ======= ====== ======= ==========
Q1: 10.64T $9.62B 10.14T $9.17B 0.54T $0.49B 1.43T $1.29B 13.5%
Q2: 12.18T $11.29B 11.69T $10.84B 0.49T $0.45B 1.67T $1.55B 13.7%
Q3: 14.90T $12.65B 14.42T $12.24B 0.48T $0.41B 2.52T $2.14B 16.9%
Q4: 17.82T $15.36B 17.18T $14.81B 0.64T $0.55B 2.64T $2.28B 14.8%
------ ------- ------ ------- ------ ------- ------ ------ ---------
2011 55.53T $47.87B 53.43T $46.06B 2.10T $1.81B 7.13T $6.15B 14.9%
Caveat: The usual applies. It is possible and perhaps probable that in creating the table templates I chose to employ for this exercise, and in extracting data, making currency conversions and compiling the tables above, and those that will appear in future posts on this board, that I have made typos, transposition errors, or calculation errors. If anyone spots one I'd most appreciate being so advised.
It is extremely difficult to precisely compare Samsung Electronics' Telecoms business segment to Nokia or Samsung's Telecoms business segment + a portion of their Digital Media & Appliances (DM & A) Business Segment which manufactures notebook computers, PC monitors, and media players as well as TVs, printers, other media appliances, washers. dryers and refrigerators to Apple but in the following month I'll attempt the best comparison I'm able to construct.
Strategy Analytics Links:
• Strategy Analytics: Global Handset Shipments Reach 1.6 Billion Units in 2011
tinyurl.com
• Apple Becomes World's Largest Smartphone Vendor in Q4 2011
tinyurl.com
• Android Captures Record 39 Percent Share of Global Tablet Shipments in Q4 2011
tinyurl.com
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- Eric - |
