Turns Out, People Do Buy Gadgets in a Pandemic
Yet winter may be bleak as competition and the global spread of Covid-19 deepen.
Samsung is warning of a fourth-quarter downturn.
Photographer: Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS/Getty
Consumer lethargy is a real risk as Covid-19 spreads unabated. A jump in revenue and profit at Samsung Electronics Co. answers a question economists and investors have been mulling since the start of the year: What people buy in a pandemic.
As it turns out, gadgets. Smartphones and flat-screen TVs weren’t around when the Spanish flu struck a century ago, but they’re a hot item now. Samsung’s handset business jumped 50% for the September quarter from the previous period, helped by the launch of new iterations of its flagship Galaxy series. The company also managed to leverage cost-saving measures, including lower marketing spending, to boost earnings from the June quarter.