Samsung execs to discuss ‘crisis awareness’ at huge company meeting

Samsung’s management team is meeting from December 17th through the 20th to discuss its plans for the next year, and one of the main topics is “crisis awareness,” ZDNet reported. It is not clear if Samsung has a specific crisis in mind — perhaps the slowing sales of its high-end smartphones — or whether the company is just making an effort to ensure that it is prepared. On the whole, Samsung is doing very well right now. Apple and Samsung are the only two companies that have been able to profitably sell smartphones, combining to make 109% of the mobile industry’s profit last quarter, while all other companies are losing money or breaking even. But crisis always looms. Samsung’s foray into smartwatches hasn’t been well received, though Samsung did manage to sell 800,000 Galaxy Gear units into distribution channels. It’s still not clear if consumers are buying them, however. Beyond that, it was ruled last week that Samsung will have to pay Apple $290 million in addition to the $600 million it already owes Apple for infringing on its patents, so the crisis awareness portion of next month’s meetings could certainly pertain to ongoing patent battles.