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.

Comments

Features?

[Anne Thwacks]

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

Flagship phones are too darn expensive

[bettodavis]

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.

Re:Flagship phones are too darn expensive

[CrimsonAvenger]

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....

Moto G5 Plus cost me just $200

[t4eXanadu]

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.

Flagships are over priced

[skam240]

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.