Global chip shortage: Samsung expects its profits to jump by 52%:
Technology giant Samsung Electronics has said it expects to post a 52% jump in profit for the last three months of 2021, amid the global chip shortage.
The world's biggest memory chip maker estimates that it made 13.8tn won ($11.5bn; £8.5bn) in the period. That would be its highest fourth quarter operating profit in four years. The company's earnings were boosted by strong demand for server memory chips and higher profit margins in its chip contract manufacturing business.
[...] Samsung's spending on such things as employees' bonuses and marketing for its smartphone business were seen as reasons for it missing the market forecast.
In recent months, the global shortage of semiconductors has been causing major disruptions for manufacturers, from carmakers that have had to suspend production to Apple warning that iPhone shipments would be delayed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @02:41PM (3 children)
They're coming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @03:03PM (2 children)
It is because omicron spreads through the eyes. People need to be wearing safety goggles, or at least mascara so they don't touch their eyes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 07 2022, @03:33PM (1 child)
Thank you for that information.
Question: what about the new Covid-19 variant IHU which has been discovered in France? (but no other countries so far)
Q2: Could IHU be caused by 6G? (even though 5G isn't online yet, and marketing is still working on what claims the mobile operators will boast about for 6G)
Q3: Will the VAX protect against IHU? (will other processor architectures offer any protection?)
Q4: Why was the new Covid-19 variant named IHU? (I Hate You, I Hear You, I Heart You, Integrated Helmet Unit, Individual Housing Unit)
Q5: Why is IHU only in France when USA is #1 !!!
Awaiting your answers with
patientspatience.The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @04:58PM
Eyes are swelling up full of covid then shedding it into the community.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/two-strange-omicron-symptoms-covid19-eye-and-hair-loss/news-story/a4467ffbe4cf88cee083202dd6a9b50d [news.com.au]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 07 2022, @03:41PM (6 children)
In the old Soviet Union, there was always a shortage of something. Thus endless mind numbing queues to get some essential item. eg, toilet paper. razor blades (not for suicide). milk. Etc. It almost sounds like where the US is headed. Shortages or supply disruptions of every day items. (so far, not condoms)
Since Samsung is building a $17 billion chip fab in the US, and has selected Texas as the site, will the chip shortage eventually end once this comes on line? I know a chip fab isn't built in a day.
Maybe not everything needs chips? Perhaps one day scientists may invent a way to build automobiles that don't need microprocessors. Maybe toasters could be designed that don't need micro controller chips?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday January 07 2022, @04:00PM (1 child)
What makes things more complicated is that the chip shortage is in part related to problems further up the supply chain from the chip manufacturers, so while the new plant will help it won't solve everything.
As for the US heading to shortage-ville, it's a damn good thing that we have such a long way to go before we get real shortages of food. Famine is one of the fastest ways to collapse any semblance of civilized behavior. That said, the UK seems to be doing a far better job of sabotaging itself than the US is, so we may be getting a preview of those kinds of failures soon.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @04:04PM
>> it's a damn good thing that we have such a long way to go before we get real shortages of food
American civilization isn't collapsing for several years after the food runs out, since most Americans have sufficient calories stored in their lardy asses to make it through the lean times.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday January 07 2022, @04:20PM (1 child)
The Antique Toaster that's Better than Yours [youtube.com]
The chip shortage problems will probably be cleared up in 2023. Prices will remain elevated until there is an obvious oversupply situation, like miners dumping used GPUs onto the market after a fed crackdown or something like that.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:46PM
Fed crackdown on what? Freedoms? Americans are still driving SUVs...
I do find a lot of cryptocurrency disgusting from an environmental and technical (efficiency) perspective[1] but the USA has difficulty getting people to wear masks and get vaccinated. What crime are they gonna make up for crypto mining?
[1] I remember years ago it was claimed that bitcoin would make internet transaction costs cheaper, but so far the transaction costs seem to be high. It's 2021 transaction costs should be getting lower not higher. You're doing it wrong if the costs are higher than Mastercard and Visa. That's not progress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @06:04PM
They're reporting record profits ... over the past decade or so many companies have been merging, patents have gone out of control making it harder for new entrants to enter the market, companies are trying to keep everything more and more secret (ie: electronics used to come with technical manuals containing schematics, board views, and component lists. Not anymore. Now they don't want you opening the hood of your own car, they etch out chip information so you can't identify a bad chip to repair it, they glue and fasten components together instead of just screwing them so they're harder to take apart and fix, etc...), etc...
So ... it looks like less competition = less aggregate output = more profit
Not just Samsung BTW ... though there aren't that many players anymore because ... less competition.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:48AM
It's easy to make a car with no chips. Given the modern technology, this car will be virtually immortal and twice cheaper. See the problem?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @04:00PM (3 children)
According to him, high prices are due to corporate greed and not market forces. Guess the dementia's setting in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @06:16PM
Abolish patents and I would agree that high prices are due to market forces. In the meantime one can argue they are due to government intervention ...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @06:24PM (1 child)
And he's right. I'm sorry that you have dementia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @11:14PM
Interestingly they olace full faith in "market forces" and zero faith in peer reviewed science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @05:55PM
two things the REAL news will never enlighten us with:
1) source of covid.
2) reason for "semi conductor shortage".
also, maybe samsung should just make like 10 chips per year and sell each one for a tiny bit less then what a new fab would cost?
profit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @06:28PM (5 children)
If people let the market work, it will sort out. Oh, I know, some people think a dictator should force everything to happen immediately the way they want. That has not worked in the past and will not work now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @07:05PM (4 children)
Patents are against free markets ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @07:10PM (3 children)
Patents are time limited, unlike copyright, which is practically eternal at this point.
I will take private planning and patents over the top-down, govt planning endorsed by statists any day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @08:36PM
20 years in tech is an eternity. Also, it's not like the USPTO really does a very thorough prior art review of these things, the language is so vague it's even hard to identify prior art or prior patents or a slight variation that would still mostly cover a prior patent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @08:39PM (1 child)
(and no one is endorsing government planning. We're endorsing that companies can do their own planning without having the top-down government patent system telling them what they can and can't do. Patents are a top-down government planning system, they force everyone to try to plan around them or to not even innovate because of some stupid nonsense patent rubber stamped by some stupid patent examiner that's not remotely skilled in the art. It's interesting you're against this 'top-down' government planning but you are pro-patents ... patents coming from the government).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @10:42PM
I'm not arguing for some ideal system, but rather one that has been proven to work well when compared against the alternatives. I agree that patents are granted too freely.