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Tech giants Apple, Samsung and Intel reported record revenues this past week. Other companies, such as Lam Research, weren’t so fortunate, reporting lower–than–expected numbers and dwindling sales. But if there’s one thing these companies can agree on, it’s that supply chain disruptions are here to stay.
On Thursday, Samsung reported an all–time quarterly high with a Q4 revenue of 76.6 trillion won ($63.4 billion), which the company says is due in part to its expanded sales in premium smartphones, smart TVs and home appliances. Gross margins did decrease because of a decline in memory prices, according to the company.
During its earnings call, executives provided Samsung’s business outlook for 2022, expecting growth in several areas, including memory, component business and finished product business, based on expected recovery of the global IT demand. Executives did acknowledge, however, that component shortages are likely to persist well into 2022.
Jin-Man Han, Samsung’s senior vice president of semiconductor business, said that although overall revenue increased, its Q4 memory demand stand-alone server performance declined compared to Q3 because of the continued global supply chain issues, a slight drive in ASP and payments of one-off special incentives. The company is also experiencing COVID-19 related impacts on its DRAM business as well as stagnation in demand for client SSD because of set build disruptions cause by component shortages.
Apple also reported record highs on Thursday with a Q1 revenue of $123.9 billion, an all–time high for the company and an 11 percent increase YoY. Analyst estimates originally forecasted Apple’s Q1 earnings to reach $118.5 billion and expected mid single–digit growth in both its iPhone and Mac revenues, which Apple beat with a 9 and 25 percent increase in those areas, respectively.
For the rest of this article, please see EETimes.
