Samsung Smartphone Production Plan for 2023 Leaked, Company Plans to Ship 291 Million Units: Report

Samsung has seemingly toned down its sales expectations for 2023 after purportedly falling short of its target for this year. The South Korean tech giant is expected to compete fiercely with Apple when it launches the Galaxy S23 series in 2023. It is reportedly expecting the Galaxy S23 Ultra to outperform its other two siblings — Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ — and is expected to account for nearly 45 percent of the total Galaxy S23 series units produced in 2023. This step could have been taken as Samsung witnessed a massive interest in the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year.

According to a report by The Elec, Samsung has set its smartphone production target for 2023 at around 291 million units. The company has reportedly reduced its target by 13 percent in comparison to the 334.2 million smartphones for 2022. However, the South Korean tech giant has purportedly only shipped about 260 million units this year.

Out of the estimated 291 million units, the Galaxy S23 series is expected to account for 32.63 million units in 2023. Furthermore, the Galaxy S23 Ultra could take up about 45 percent of Samsung's next flagship lineup. The Galaxy S23+ could just be 17 percent of the shipments, whereas the cheapest Galaxy S23 might account for 38 percent of the units.

Samsung's foldable smartphones have reportedly only experienced a marginal bump. Next year's Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 could have 10.4 million units shipped in 2023. In comparison, the company had planned to produce around 9.8 million units of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4.

Notably, the Galaxy A series of affordable smartphones could continue to be the largest chunk of Samsung's shipments in 2023. It is believed that the South Korean tech giant could be planning to produce around 216 million Galaxy A series units, which is said to account for 74 percent of the company's total shipments.

Samsung is supposedly playing catchup with Apple and hopes to strengthen the Galaxy S series as a flagship offering. However, it is believed that the normal and Plus Galaxy S series models have featured low specifications in recent times, and might not be regarded as flagship offerings. The report suggests that Samsung could be envisioning changes in the Galaxy S lineup or even introducing a new entry into the series.