If you want the Galaxy S22 experience, you’ll have to pay full price. Rumors indicate that the upcoming Galaxy S22 FE, a mid-range phone with flagship specs, is canceled. Samsung has reportedly reallocated its supply of Galaxy S22 FE chips for the popular Galaxy S22 Ultra.
As reported by Korea’s The Elec, Samsung originally planned to produce 3 million units of the Galaxy S22 FE smartphone. But the company is having trouble selling its budget smartphones, particularly the Galaxy A-series phones. Because the high-end Galaxy S22 Ultra is still in high demand, it only makes sense to focus on this premium device.
Samsung is also rumored to have an overstock of product—about 50 million phones just sitting in distributor inventory. Even if this figure is slightly inflated, Samsung is probably worried that unsold product will lose value, sell at a discount, and fail to turn a profit. Adding a few million mid-range Galaxy S22 FEs to the mix could be a risky idea.
Several tech companies are fighting to deal with overstock this year, including NVIDIA and AMD. These companies made ridiculously large chipset orders through TSMC to navigate the early years of COVID. But demand for technology managed to tank this year due to several factors, including the global economic downturn, leaving these companies with unsold product and large manufacturing contracts that can’t be canceled.
I should note that the Galaxy S21 FE was almost canceled. But that was under the opposite circumstances—back then, Samsung worried that it couldn’t produce enough phones.
So, while the Galaxy S22 FE may be canceled, we could get serious discounts on certain products next year.
