In a not-exactly-happy New Year message sent to employees, Samsung chief executive Kwon Oh-hyun has warned that growth will continue to slow over the course of 2016 — with the reason being weak global economies and increased competition from the likes of Apple.

The biggest parts of Samsung’s business likely to suffer include memory chips and smartphones.

Although Kwon doesn’t give figures, the warning offers another piece of evidence that Samsung’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of last year may be even weaker than anticipated. Samsung is expected to publish full details of earnings for the October to December quarter this Friday.

“Negative impact from weak demand and falling sales prices for semiconductor and liquid crystal display industries was likely bigger than initially anticipated,” Korea Investment noted in a separate report published today.

Given that Apple had a fantastic 2015 with record-beating iPhone sales, it’s no surprise that Samsung would be squeezed at the high-end of smartphone sales.

However, the rise of lower-cost handsets such as those made by Xiaomi have also squeezed Samsung at the lower end of the market, which has been a problem for many Android device makers involved in the race-to-the-bottom.

Source: Daily Mail