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Samsung Plans To Overhaul Its Smartphone Strategy at the Mid-range Price Point (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the doubling-down dept.

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.

39 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Features? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never mind the features, just dump the bloat and unlock the boot loader.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    1. Re:Features? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      IIRC all Samsung smartphones are bootloader unlocked unless they are carrier branded. Flashing a new ROM is really easy using ODIN.

      I heard they toned down on the bloat lately, which, for flagships, would be a little disappointing for me. That's because with the bloat are really nice features that aren't available with other vendors, some of the best ones ended up in stock Android. That's the kind of thing that push things forwards. For the low end however, I agree that Samsung's bloat is terrible. Flagships have enough horsepower to handle it, as you go down, the bloat stays mostly the same but the specs don't follow, and to make things worse, if they remove something, it tends to be one of the really nice features, the useless stuff that slow down the system stay.

      I like the time when Samsung meant "too many features in a plastic shell". Now, they don't mean anything, Samsung phones are just like other smartphones, essentially pale copies of what Apple is doing as the moment.

    2. Re:Features? by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      IIRC all Samsung smartphones are bootloader unlocked unless they are carrier branded.

      Nope. That's only true for the Exynos variants. The carrier unlocked phones with snapdragon CPUs have a locked down bootloader. They also make unlocking the Exynos phones very painful. With their knox efuse, you'll void your warranty even for hardware issues and the unlocking process takes like a week. Samsung is not friendly to tweakers.

    3. Re:Features? by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Ok, I looked it up and it looks like people in the US and Canada have locked bootloaders. I live in Europe so maybe that's why I didn't really get the problem.
      For the knox eFuse, they can't deny you the warranty if the cause is unrelated. I think it is the case in the EU and in the US. The "KNOX warranty void" just mean that you can't use Knox anymore, which shouldn't really matter unless it is a company issued phone. However, most of it comes from the shop policies, if one denies you a warranty repair, it is a PITA regardless of legality.
      Unless they changed something the unlocking process takes no time at all, in fact, there is no unlocking process since the bootloader isn't locked in the first place. The only thing is that in order to flash a ROM, you need to use ODIN and not fastboot.
      As for being friendly to tweakers, outside of North America, Samsung is relatively tweaker friendly when it comes to letting you do what you want to do. However, don't count on their help if you want to develop on Samsung devices, the worst part is that they often heavily customize their ROMs, so what works on a stock Android may not work with Samsung.

  2. Flagship phones are too darn expensive by bettodavis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Going over $1000 USD for a smartphone is just insane.

    The things aren't even different in any notorious way from last year's version. Same screen size, shape, storage, etc.
    And I don't care if the thing can track how many calories I ate just by taking a selfie while eating or tell some wisecracking jokes while doing web searches. Those new "features" aren't worth going $1000 damn dollars.

    1. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Going over $1000 USD for a smartphone is just insane.

      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"
    2. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At this point in time I think we are at peak mobile phone. I still feel no need to upgrade my 4 year old note4, as none of the newer phones provide any compelling features to make me jump, and infact take away features that my 4 year old note4 has.

      The processor on flagship phones cira 4 years ago are still plenty powerful for today's applications. The phone makers just need to come to terms they have reached saturation just like the PC market did 10 years ago with intel resting on it's laurels barely providing any meaningful upgrades to processors other than die process shrinks.

      What they do need to do however is make these devices actually last. These are devices that are carried around daily and handled multiple dozens of times per day. I am currently on my 2nd note4 and will still keep picking up NIB ones from ebay for around $200 a pop rather than shelling out a grand for today's latest ohhh shiny.

      As far as software updates, install TWRP and load LineageOS, there are updated builds released on a nearly daily if not at least weekly basis which include all the latest google monthly security updates as google releases them.

    3. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Interesting

      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
    4. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      If you buy a phone to last about two years $1k is not at all insane for something you will use all the time.

      $1K for a phone is insane if you are trying to get together a down payment for a home or send your kids to college or any number of better ways to use that money. Adding insult to Apple's injury, nobody keeps a phone for just two years these days. My last phone was a flagship that lasted more than four years. It got replaced by a midrange $400 phone that looks and acts just like a flagship, and will also last four years or more. This phone does everything I want plus leaves $600 in my pocket.

      Yup, we have officially entered the post-flagship era. Don't even think about putting your retirement savings into flagship-addicted AAPL.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    5. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Two years? The technology isn't moving that fast anymore. I spent $600 on a premium phone over five years ago, and consider it money very well spent. I still haven't found an app that won't run on it because it's too old or slow.

      But the battery is old and a bit worn out now, and I'm no longer getting security updates, so I'm going to upgrade soon. I'm looking forward to getting a phone with a more convenience locking mechanism (fingerprint reader or facial camera - we'll see) and a better camera, but other than that, there are really no new significant features from what was available five years ago.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    6. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      What I got from your post: "I have a $1,000 phone but I'm still renting." I guess you made my point.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I once made a poor income too

      You are a poster child for this. The rest of us are moving away from overpriced flagships.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    8. Re: Flagship phones are too darn expensive by houghi · · Score: 1

      The 1000USD phones are there to make the 500 USDone look cheap. When I look, I look arounf 100 USD and even that hurts. Due to age, eyes are getting worse and I need a bit bigger screen.

      All I do is SMS, whatsapp, minor surfing, banking and 5 other apps. No need for speed.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    9. Re: Flagship phones are too darn expensive by houghi · · Score: 1

      I have mine 3 years and paid 150EUR. are you telling me I should oay more for the same usage?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    10. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by Arashi256 · · Score: 1

      While I understand the point you're attempting to make, that's nonsense. A modern smartphone is basically a PC in your pocket. Is your PC useless because you have nobody to email? No. There are any number of useful things that a smartphone can do that doesn't involve calling or texting anybody.

    11. Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive by hankwang · · Score: 1

      "that everyone will be getting a new(er) phone every five or six years."

      I'm all for using stuff until it falls apart, but all my previous phones developed serious hardware issues within about three years. Nexus 5: power button stuck and battery worn out - after I spent EUR 70, I botched the battery replacement. HTC Desire S: touch screen stopped working. Nokia N82: camera broke. Dumb phone before that: couldn't make phone calls anymore and all the key labels had worn off.

      I wonder how people can make a phone last for six years when it is subjected to the stress of being in my pocket or hands all the time.

      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
  3. It's too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Smart phones have are getting into the "good enough" stage where they do everything people want them to do, so customers are feeling feel less and less incentive to spend money on an upgrade. Even worse, the "upgrades" increasingly add little more than stupid novelty features that nobody really wants.

    The same thing happened with PCs, laptops and tablets. Smart phones are just the latest ones going down the same path..

  4. Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200 by t4eXanadu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bought a Moto G5 Plus for $200 to replace my broken Galaxy phone, and let me tell you: I will never spend more than $400 on a new phone. G5 Plus is a solid midrange phone with good specs and little bloat. Best that Samsung.

    1. Re:Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200 by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      G6+ not a whole lot more. Recommended.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200 by coofercat · · Score: 1

      WileyFox makes phones for about £200 - any they're decent specs. The haterz will argue they're not 100% brilliant, which they're not, but there are plenty of things wrong with the top-end dick-extension phones too.

      As for Samsung - the day they make their crappy bundled apps uninstallable is the day I'll consider buying any of their products ever again.

    3. Re:Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200 by dj245 · · Score: 1

      G6+ not a whole lot more. Recommended.

      They aren't making the G6+ for the US market. It is missing several of the typical US frequencies and just isn't sold here. For some reason they are only selling the G6 and the G6 play in the US. I just bought a G5S+. I haven't received it yet but I didn't think it was worth the trouble to import a G6+ and hope it worked with my carrier.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    4. Re:Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200 by iampiti · · Score: 1

      Yep, that's exactly why they're doing this: The middle tier phones are good enough for most people so people are buying more of them and fewer flagships.
      Here in Spain many people are buying Xiaomi phones which offer incredible value for the price. Samsung just can't hope to be in a good position if they don't do a major overhaul to their middle line.

  5. Flagships are over priced by skam240 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    1. Re:Flagships are over priced by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      $120 from Sprint

      That's a contract price. You can't even get a used Z2 force for that price.

  6. You mean ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    ... if you charge less, you can sell more?? Get out!

  7. Stop gluing wear items into the phones by nightfire-unique · · Score: 2

    We are not idiots, Samsung. Stop gluing wear items such as batteries into our phones.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  8. Really? Scoff. by skam240 · · Score: 2

    Really? Scoff.

    How many users are really going to take advantage of the slightly greater speeds those phones provide? I just bought last year's model top tier Motorola for $120 ( see for comments on value of purchase https://mobile.slashdot.org/st... ) . These new thousand dollar phones are offering increased values in exactly the opposite places the average user needs.

    Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a power user when it comes to PCs because I play games but unless you're big on mobile gaming or have some super niche, power hungry use for your phone there's very little extra value in these top tier phones. Four of Five years from now you'll be wanting to buy a new phone whether you buys a sub $300 phone or a $1,000 one.

    --
    I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  9. The premium phones are simply too much now. by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    Samsung Galaxy Note 9 in Australia is now:
    $1499 AUD RRP for the base model $1799 AUD for the 8GB / 512GB model.
    That's $1079 US / $ 1294 US

    The base iphone X is $1579 AUD and upgraded is $1829 AUD
    That's $1136 USD / $1316 USD.
    (Admittedly unlike ridiculous America, we DO include taxes in our list prices, no counter shock, ever. Thank goodness)

    Back when I first got into smartphones, the premium level Samsung was about $700 to $900 AUD, that's $650 US which is a lot of money, but if you've got a job, love your gadgets, that's not too bad.

    Now, admittedly, I do have to wonder if some of these increases don't tie back to inflation in general (ever since 2008 / 2009 a LOT of money printing has occurred world wide) but I can't be sure.

    If my wages had gone up on the same trajectory as phones, I probably would have no issue, dropping nearly $2000 on a premium toy that I love to play with. However, wages have */virtually been unchanged at all/*in the last decade, at least in my country.

    Interestingly, some companies do appear able to offer fairly close to top of the line phones at semi-reasonable pricing (down in the $1100 for flagship models) like One Plus etc. It's still gone up, but it's not $1800.

  10. DUH! by p51d007 · · Score: 2

    A properly constructed 835 chip, 4-6 gig of ram, 64 or 128 gig of storage, OLED, 10-12mp camera with OIS is good enough for probably 99% of users. Take off the stupid flashy color garbage along with the glass backs, stick a 4,000mAH battery inside, price it for less than $400 and clean up.

  11. Mid-range, where the high price used to be by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

    Apple and Samsung have done so much to push up the price of a new phone that now the mid-range phone - which is hard to find at retail anywhere - costs more than the flagship phones cost not many years ago. The mid-range phone exists mostly on paper, to encourage people to go out and buy the flagship phones. Good luck finding a Samsung other than a Galaxy S8 (or newer) in any store near you. You'll never find accessories for anything else from them in a retailer either.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  12. Stop messing with what works by LaughingRadish · · Score: 2

    Bring back IR emitters.
    Bring back removable batteries.
    Keep SD card slots.
    Keep 3.5mm headphone jack.
    Get rid of rounded edge displays. They're pointless and any gimmicky effect is thwarted by cases.
    Get rid of the notch.
    Forget about edgeless displays.
    Don't lock bootloaders, or at least provide a means for any owner to unlock the bootloader at no charge.
    Keep the physical home button.
    Knock it off with Knox.

    1. Re:Stop messing with what works by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      You forgot dual SIM.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    2. Re:Stop messing with what works by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

      Knox would be nice if the owners of the phone were allowed to reset it and use their own operating systems (ie, LineageOS)

  13. Re:WTF? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    Must be the Moral Panic Premium Edition

    Should be a big seller then.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  14. That was kind of a minimum by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Two years? The technology isn't moving that fast anymore.

    I kind of agree; my wife for example has had her phone for about three years now, will probably hold out a year or two longer.

    I myself am waiting two, but honestly the I wouldn't do so that often if not for two factors:

    1) Camera improves enough over that time I find value in an upgrade.

    2) I do mobile development and so need relatively new models to test with.

    Other than that just speed and feature improvements across the board would probably move me to wait no longer than three, two does seem pretty good and is also about the length of a contract most people use that gives them phone upgrades.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:That was kind of a minimum by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Oh, there's no doubt about the vast improvement of cameras over the past few years. There's a HUGE difference in the pictures I took and that of my brother (who has a recent iPhone w/ its excellent camera). Like I said, I'm looking forward to a better camera myself. But I'm not sure how much cameras can realistically improve beyond the current excellent state of the art. Once you can't tell the difference in quality anymore with the naked eye like with screen resolution, it just becomes a numbers bragging-rights game, and people (aside from enthusiasts) will quickly tire of that.

      And as for being a phone developer... well, yeah, I can see you wanting a current phone for dev work.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:That was kind of a minimum by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      But I'm not sure how much cameras can realistically improve beyond the current excellent state of the art.

      Well, the thing is there is still a vast difference between the most recent iPhone camera and my dedicated 4/3 size sensor cameras... so I think phone cameras will be improving for quite a while yet even if the sensors will stay a lot smaller. Still pretty sure I'm not upgrading the phone this year unless they do something amazing.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  15. I'd like them to be OLED by kriston · · Score: 1

    I'd like them to be OLED. I recently decided upon the affordable Galaxy J7 V 2nd Gen since I'm not a heavy mobile user. When I got to the store I realized that it wasn't OLED and changed my mind.

    --

    Kriston

  16. Re:Galaxy S9 by Arashi256 · · Score: 1

    I did! I bought my S8 to replace my aging Sony Compact Z3 when the S9 was released and consequently got it cheap for what it is. The Sony would actually still be fine if the battery still held a charge. That's the thing the phone makers have figured out with non-removable batteries. Eventually the thing is useless even if the specs are still fine for your needs and the phone is physically still in one piece. You'll still have to upgrade in three years no matter what because the battery is fucked. If mobile phones still had replacable batteries, I'm betting most people would keep their phones for 5+ years, assuming the OS updates keep going. Which is another calculated move by the phone makers.