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Samsung Plans To Overhaul Its Smartphone Strategy at the Mid-range Price Point (cnbc.com)
Samsung Electronics plans to overhaul its smartphone strategy at the mid-range price point in order to appeal more to millennials, the company's mobile CEO has told CNBC. From the report: DJ Koh said the South Korean giant is changing its smartphone strategy for its mid-priced Galaxy A series of smartphones amid a slowdown in the handset market. Instead of introducing new technology into the flagship Galaxy S and Note series of devices, Koh said Samsung will look to bring in cutting-edge features to its cheaper models first. The first of these devices will come later this year. "In the past, I brought the new technology and differentiation to the flagship model and then moved to the mid-end. But I have changed my strategy from this year to bring technology and differentiation points starting from the mid-end," Koh told CNBC in an exclusive interview last week. The move comes amid a global smartphone slowdown with Samsung feeling a bit of the pressure. Sales in its mobile division fell 20 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018 with the company attributing it to lower-than-expected sales of its high-end Galaxy S9 device.
Going anywhere near $1000 USD for a phone is just insane.
For that matter, assuming that a new phone is needed every year is insane.
From the PoV of a phone maker, it's probably safe to assume (right now - in ten years, prolly not) that everyone will be getting a new(er) phone every five or six years. So manufacturing for replacing 15-20% of the phones every year might make sense.
Beyond that, assuming everyone will need a more powerful phone every replacement? Nope. Maybe every third replacement? Possibly.
With exceptions for the fashionistas among us. There'll always be a (small) market for the people who buy a phone, not to do phone things, but to show how hip (fashionable, whatever) they are. Which should keep Apple in business, anyways....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
If you buy a phone to last about two years $1k is not at all insane for something you will use all the time.
You get a huge amount of value from a smartphone...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I just bought a last years model Motorola Z2 Force ( https://www.motorola.com/us/pr... ) for $120 from Sprint. This is Mororola's flagship from last year.
Now granted the Z series isn't as great as Samsung's or Apple's flagships but it's not a bad phone by a long shot and isn't that far off. The only reason I can see for most people to be paying the current prices for the latest and greatest flagships is tech nerd status which I could care less about. I feel like Samsung is wising up here and realize they can't offer anything new that matters all that much and is reorienting itself for what I feel like is the market to come.
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