Samsung has negotiated steep price cuts with some major domestic smartphone parts suppliers and this may bring down the manufacturing cost of the Galaxy S21, reports SamMobile, citing South Korean publication The Elec.
The unit price of RF components has apparently been reduced by around 9 percent, which is quite a lot as rates are usually cut by 5 percent at most. Screen modules have allegedly been discounted too.
The drop seemingly has something to do with the sluggish sales of the Galaxy S20, which resulted in underutilization of production lines. Some suppliers apparently lowered the price to increase line utilization rate, and the practice then spread to more vendors.
It remains to be seen if these concessions will be passed on to Galaxy S21 buyers in form of a price reduction, given Samsung is not the one to shy away from pocketing hefty margins.
Samsung’s Q3 profit rose 58 percent year over year, and although the company did not provide a breakdown of the results, it is believed that its earnings were boosted by an uptick in smartphone sales.
