REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Constantinescu gets his information from a translation of Korean site ET News.
Samsung is anticipating sales of 330 million smartphone, down from an original forecast of 360 million units.
If Samsung hits that target, then its unit sales will only grow by 14% in 2014 on a year-over-year basis. For some context, Samsung expects smart phone sales to jump by 43% on a year-over-year basis this year. BI Intelligence estimates the overall smartphone market grows by 24%.
Samsung is lowering its forecast because it thinks the high-end of the market is getting saturated. Going after the low-end of the market isn't really an option. Constantinescu notes that the low-end is too low for even Samsung: $49 smartphones on the streets of China and India are worthless to Samsung, so it's not going to try to crack that market.
ET News also suggests that Samsung wants to protect its profits by not competing too fiercely on price.
As a result of a big drop in the smart phone business, ET News says Samsung is looking for its next big growth market.
In the short term, Samsung will focus on smart phone accessories like the Galaxy Gear smart watch.
In the long term, it sounds like Samsung will try everything (which is the Samsung way). ET News says Samsung is exploring the "communications equipments market," "data center and cloud computing-related businesses," and it "will develop high-tech materials business in an attempt to seek for synergy with Samsung Electronics."
An anonymous, high-ranking Samsung exec tells ET News: "We are ready to use all methods considering M&A if there are businesses that can be used as our new growth power ... We will not settle for our current achievements even if our businesses (including smartphone business) are producing satisfactory outcomes."