Samsung Previews Major Smartphone Line Shift: More Z, Less Note
Context (What Happened)
Samsung’s head of mobile Dr. TM Roh published a blog post this morning that recaps Samsung Mobile’s achievements in 2019 and touches on sustainability, UWB, open source, and privacy before clearly laying out Samsung’s smartphone strategy for 2021. Samsung will be expanding its foldable lineup, including lower priced devices. Video recording will be a priority, and the Note’s S-Pen stylus capabilities will come to non-Note phones.
Press Release
Analysis
The highlights of Dr. TM Roh’s message are clear: Samsung recognizes that its early bet on foldables can fully pay off if Samsung expands into affordable price segments while it has minimal competition.
Apple almost certainly has foldables in its labs, but there have not been any credible leaks suggesting that the Cupertino giant has any intention of selling foldables any time soon. Huawei is selling the Mate X in limited quantities, but only in China, a market where Samsung is largely absent. Huawei is also hamstrung by U.S. government dictates that have constrained its supply of components and banned it from using Google software and services. Royole has a foldable, too, but the company has spent more effort trying to sell its display tech to others than marketing the phone to consumers. That leaves Lenovo’s Motorola Razr as the only real rival to any of Samsung’s foldables, and, like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5G, the Razr has been priced as a premium fashion device.
More competition is coming. LG chose to start with dual-screen cases and swiveling phones rather than folding ones, but LG Display has foldable displays and LG is working on a rollable phone. TCL has shown multiple foldable prototypes, but none have made it to market yet. Similarly, BK Group’s OPPO is working on a rollable and just revealed a video about a clever segmented foldable concept. Samsung has already proven it can build second-generation cost-is-no-object foldable in the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Iterating on that design and creating new ones should be enough to fend off the competition’s first-generation premium concepts. However, to grow its market share – and steal some iOS users along the way – Samsung needs to bring refined, attractive foldables below the $1000 price point where most phones sales live.
The Note brand still has cachet and a unique set of customers, but its time as technology leader has come to an end. In truth, there has been a lot of overlap between the top Galaxy S and Note models for several years and it is time to spread the differentiated S Pen experience across more of Samsung’s line. This is not as radical a strategy as it may seem; Samsung already brought the S Pen to several of its tablets and laptops.
Video has been an area where Samsung – and Android phones in general – have lagged, but it is increasing in importance to consumers. Early data from 5G markets in China and Korea show that video usage spikes on 5G: downloading and streaming, but also recording and uploading. Investments Samsung makes in providing superior video capabilities will be embraced by consumers.
The only mildly concerning aspect of Samsung’s announcement is the timing. It is too close to Christmas for the mention of Samsung 2021 phones to steal many sales from current models, and everyone knows that new phones are always just around the corner regardless of when you buy. Still, it is just before Christmas, and there is no reason to give any last-minute gift buyers pause. It would have been more judicious to wait until early January to sum up the past year and get people excited about the future.
Conclusion
Samsung’s strategic priorities for its mobile business are clear, they build on the company’s existing strengths, and will provide strong differentiation for Samsung if it can execute on them.
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