The news media across the globe have been heaping praise on Samsung’s cool new Galaxy S10 and S10+ smartphones. But amid all the raves about the tech innovations and fancy features of these devices, they are still falling behind the fast growing chinese giants Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. I’m Steven from techmagnet and in todays Episode of the Truth about, we will have a closer look at Samsungs Smartphone strategy and why the Galaxy S10 will be Samsung last try to innovate.
The Galaxy S10 unpacked Event is happening and I will receive my device for reviews tomorrow, but todays video is not only about the S10 features, its about Samsungs strategy in a market that has become though and declining. Global smartphone production volume for 2019 is expected to be 1.41 billion units, a decrease of 3.3% compared with 2018,according to the latest report by TrendForce. Brands like Samsung would record lower production volumes this year because the overall demand outlook in the global smartphone market
remains weak, something the galaxy s10 needs to change.
If the demand outlook becomes worse, together with uncertainties and impacts from the US-China trade war, the decline in global smartphone production may reach 5% in 2019.
For the global ranking of smartphone market share, Samsung will remain the market leader, while Huawei is close to them in 2019 and be number 1.Samsung produced 293 million smartphones in 2018, a YoY decline of 8%, while its market share has also shrunk. But why is this happening ? Is it because their phones are bad orare they overpriced ? NO defintily not, but since smartphones are our daily companions for years now, You can say that almost everyone has a smartphone and we do not change our smartphones so fast as samsung or other brands release new phones right ? So the market especially in Europe and north america has reached a saturation point. Same Goes for chinaand Huawei had this year a slower year on year grow and this causes them to freak out.
But The reason is not the product. Samsung is a product innovation powerhouse, launching state-of-the-art devices that compete head to head with Apple’s mobile products and also Huaweis and getting great reviews, but to the average user it looks like the same model with a higher number. So The reason for this loss of the market share lies elsewhere. For 2019, Samsung is expecting similar results like in 2018, though it plans on achieving sustainable growth with the help of new 5G and foldable devices. The Galaxy S10,is also expected to boost sales numbers by finally looking different than the last models, because if you have a look at all the old galaxy devices, then you can clearly see that their innovation, atleast from the optical point of view got lost along the way.
So you guys have all seen the leaks. There are different Galaxy S10 at a multitude of sizes, ranging from 5.8 inches to as large as 6.4 or 6.7 inches for the S10 Plus.Samsung now tries to hold their position in the premium segment but also will try to offer a more affordable version of their S10 to boost their sales over all budget regions.
Samsung is using the Snapdragon 855 or Exynos 9820 chipset — depending on your region. Storage ranges from the 128GB base , right up to 1TB for the top-tier S10+ model. I think the S10 design looks great, and we know samsung is the king of oleds in smartphones. So the notch is so 2018 and this year will be the year of holes in the display. Huawei was the company that showed alot of innovation in 2017 and now Samsung is trying to do the same. 4 Cameras on the back, 2 in the front, an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner
and they improved also something that was for me always a dealbreaker on samsung smartphones the battery. So finally some decent size with 4100mah and i really hope that this doesnt end like the note 7.
Samsung also adopted reverse wireless charging, that huawei announced with the mate 20 pro. Since i dont use wireless in ears or such accessories, its a useless feature for me as the charging speed between smartphones is very slow, something that huawei has really cheated on in their marketing.
So with the S10 this is Samsungs last try to get back the crown from Samsung in the field Innovation. But why has Samsung actually stopped innovating over the past years and just relaunched their devices and sometimes even with very similar hardware ?
The reason is that the smartphone business isnt very lucrative for samsung. Same goes for LG and Sony. But samsung is definitly on a better way than them. The following chart shows the tale of the two key divisions for Samsung : IM( Telecom) & Semiconductor and its impact on bottom lines and how they have grown over the years. The Semiconductor division now contributes to 78% of the total Samsung Electronics’ operating profits.
Its pretty funny because the customers (Apple, Chinese brands, Qualcomm)
are a driving part of the semiconductor business growth. So it doesnt matter which brand it is, but with smartphones, making money is very hard in a saturated market like now and with devices that barely have unique selling points. So believe it or not, the mobile and display panel business revenue is dropping hard, but The semiconductor business (memory (NAND + DRAM), saw revenues grow a massive +31% YoY. So Samsung is compensating the Smartphones with their Semiconducter business and other stuff like pharma or home apliances and Huawei is doing that by selling their network equipment. So its all about the marketshare, not substantially the revenue.
Samsung Group said it will invest about $22 billion over the next three years in growth areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G technology. That would be part of Samsung’s overall $161 billion investment plans that include capital expenditure and research and development. But also Huawei Spent For 5G technologies in particular, around 15 dillion usd just in 2018. So its not about the actual race of selling more smartphones, its about being the leading company in the next big technology. So the question is, Will the Samsung Galaxy S10, change all that ? Well im pretty sure it will have way bigger impact than the s9, as the s9 was not really innovative and had a very soft impact on the market. But also Huawei will have a big surprise with their Huawei P30 on the 26th of march, so it will be a tough battle Between the Korean Giant Samsung and the chinese giant Huawei.
Sources:
- https://press.trendforce.com/node/view/3200.html
- http://en.ctimes.com.tw/DispNews.asp?O=HK31EBQYIJWSAA00NK
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/samsung-to-spend-22-billion-in-new-growth-areas-including-ai-and-5g.html
