Samsung Ends Smartphone Production In China, Here's Why

Samsung Electronics says it has ended the production of smartphones in its last factory in China. Samsung said in an emailed statement Friday that it “has arrived at the difficult decision to cease operations of Samsung Electronics Huizhou” in China in late September.

It says the decision was part of its ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency in our production facilities. The company says it’s following appropriate processes under China’s relevant laws to withdraw.

Samsung closed another factory in Tianjin, China, last year.

South Korean media say Samsung’s end of mobile phone production in the world’s largest smartphone market was partly because of rising labour costs in China.

Meanwhile, Samsung recently launched Galaxy Fold in the Indian market and will begin taking pre-bookings for the handset from October 4.

The pre-bookings will take place online through the Samsung eShop and offline in 35 cities across select 315 outlets, including the Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru. However, the shipments of Samsung Galaxy Fold will begin from October 20. 

The price for the lone 12GB RAM + 512GB storage variant of Samsung Galaxy Fold in India has been set at Rs 1,64,999. The phone comes in Cosmos Black colour option. 

Samsung Galaxy Fold features two displays - with one flat screen featuring at the front and the second internal screen that sports a foldable design. While the front display has a 4.6-inch Super AMOLED panel with an HD+ (840x1960 pixels) resolutions and 21:9 aspect ratio, the foldable display includes a 7.3-inch Infinity Flex Dynamic AMOLED panel that has a QXGA+ (1536x2152 pixels) resolution with 4.2:3 aspect ratio. 

Samsung Galaxy Fold runs Android 9 Pie with a tweaked One UI skin on top. The phone is powered by an octa-core SoC, paired with 12GB of RAM. It also comes with a 512GB of internal storage. Note that the storage is not expandable. 

 (With inputs from PTI)