Samsung Top Galaxy Leads Sales; Mac Sales Down More Than PCs; Tesla Will Build Giant Battery Factory in China; Walmart to Install Thousands of EV Charging Stations

Smartphone sales took a pretty hard hit the last quarter of 2022, with none hit harder than Samsung, shipping 16% fewer phones than in 2021. A bright spot for Samsung, though…the Galaxy S23 phones are outselling the S22 lineup by a substantial margin. Androidpolice.com reports that the Galaxy S23 is outselling the previous model by 1.7 times in Latin America, and 1.5 times in Europe. India and the Mid-East sales are also about 1 and a half times that of the S22 models. Sales are roughly flat in South Korea, and figures aren’t in yet for the US. Interestingly, the top of the line Galaxy S23 Ultra is getting 60% of Galaxy sales. 

Global PC sales were down first quarter, dropping some 29% to 56.9 million computers. According to apple insider.com, citing IDC, Apple took a particularly hard hit, with Mac sales down 40% first quarter. Apple managed to get through the holidays without a drop off experienced by other PC makers, but took the bigger hit early this year. Market Leader Lenovo was off 30.3%. Apple still managed to be the #4 seller of computers 1st quarter…with HP in 2nd place, and Dell third.

Tesla is ready to break ground on a factory in Shanghai, China that will make 10,000 of its energy storage units dubbed Megapacks a year. The New York Times says Tesla expects to have the plant producing by the 2nd quarter of 2024. Although Tesla generates most of its money from its electric-car business, but Mr. Musk has committed to expanding its solar energy and battery business to roughly the same size as its car business. The EV maker already has a factory for its Megapacks in Lathrop, Calif., where it can manufacture 10,000 units annually.

Walmart has announced they will install thousands of fast charging stations for EVs at locations around the country. Rawstory.com reports that the big box king will quadruple the company’s network of stations, currently available at over 280 Walmart and Sam’s stores nationwide. Walmart says they have a Walmart or Sam’s within 10 miles of 90% of the population of the country. This boost in charging stations should go a long way in easing charging and range anxiety for buyers of electric cars.

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.