이 기사는 2022년 06월 02일 08:04 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Samsung Electronics plans to carry out a management diagnosis on its mobile experience (MX) business for the second straight year in a bid to materialize various strategies under discussion.

South Korea’s tech giant has started a process to assess the management performance of its MX business. Samsung normally conducts the management diagnosis when a specific business unit’s performance deteriorates significantly. Audit personnel are dispatched to the relevant business to identify the cause of the sluggish performance for 3 to 6 months and come up with a solution.

The company’s latest decision comes as a surprise because it already completed the process only nine months ago due to the failure of the Galaxy S20.

Last year, the company drew up a new strategy to enhance its presence in the premium smartphone market. Instead of launching Galaxy Note, the company released new foldable smartphones.

Thanks to the management diagnosis, Samsung’s share in the global smartphone market rebounded from 19.6% in 2020 to 20% at the end of 2021. It continued to improve to reach 23.7% in the first quarter.

Samsung also surprised the market last year by announcing that it will merger its mobile and consumer electronics businesses into a single unit to establish the Galaxy ecosystem.

The company aims to check the global supply chain through the latest management diagnosis. “The growth of the smartphone market is expected to be limited this year due to macro factors,” a Samsung official said. “We aim to come up with additional strategies as our global competitiveness has yet to be stabilized.”

The global smartphone market is expected to be sluggish this year. According to new research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments are estimated to have increased a bit to 1.38 billion units in March from 1.36 billion units in March 2021. The global tablet shipments are estimated to have hovered around 170 million units.

Industry watchers expect smartphone production to decrease significantly this year. Shinhan Financial Investment expected Samsung’s annual Galaxy smartphone production to decrease by 10% to 270 million units this year. Apple plans to produce roughly 220 million iPhone units in 2022.

Samsung has cut back its annual output to 280 million units from 310 million units amid external and internal factors. (Reporting by Hyun-ji Sohn)