Taking to the stage in Berlin at the ‘Samsung Unpacked’ event, the South Korean company set out the mobile products that will drive sales to the end of the year and into 2015.
With operating income falling for three sequential quarters, and their Android brethren snapping at their heels, did Samsung do enough to halt the slide and regain the initiative in the mobile technology space?In a word, no.
Samsung is caught in the innovators dilemma. The products that have taken them to the top of the Android tree are no longer selling in the same volumes, or with the same margins. Their most recent results (for the second quarter) showed a drop in operating income by 24 percent and in operating profit by 10%. The South Korean company missed analysts’ estimates by a wide margin, and their income has dropped for three sequential quarters.
I’ve argued previously that Samsung’s iterative strategy is no longer a growth engine for the company, and I was hoping to see an acknowledgement of that in their product line-up for the rest of 2014. What I saw was the same strategy as the last few years, a strategy that will struggle to stop Samsung’s reducing income and profits.
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| Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (Image: Jay McGregor) |
If we strip away the impact of Moore’s Law on the slightly better quality screens, faster processors, camera lens technology, there was very little ‘new’ in these products. I’m sure every Android device coming out of IFA will be ‘slightly better than the last model’. What has Samsung added into the mix that will not only halt the slide in sales, but invigorate the consumer to consider a Samsung device?
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (touted by Samsung SVP Hyunjoon Kim earlier in the year as “the high-end model with a large screen” that would lead the recovery) retains the faux-leather backing, has a slight dome effect on the edge of the glass screen, and slightly better hardware all round (such as a wider front facing camera and improved accuracy on the S-Pen stylus). If the previous Note devices were not to your liking, there is nothing here to help you change your mind. Fans of the Note will enjoy it, everyone else will continue to ignore it. I can’t see how this will change Samsung’s sales trajectory.
Then there’s the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. Sporting the same hardware as the Note 4, the key difference is the screen. By wrapping 160 pixels of the screen around the long right-hand edge of the phablet, Samsung has created a spine that can display extra information, act as a location for smart buttons, and generally allow some innovation in the UI. Naturally an SDK is on offer.
If Samsung had wanted to shake the market up a bit, to try to change the discussion, then the Note Edge should have been the updated Note 4. Drop the old-fashioned iterative Note 4, and make the Note Edge the only choice available for those looking for an update.
If Samsung doesn’t believe in the Edge enough to go all-in with it, why should someone risk attaching a two-year contract to it?
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| Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (image: Jay McGregor) |
The Gear S is Samsung’s sixth smartwatch. Anyone who wants a smartwatch from the South Korean company will likely have one, and while Google’s Android Wear will be making inroads into the consumer mindset (as I discussed earlier today) the addition of standalone connectivity is negated by the need to pair the smartwatch with a Galaxy handset to set it up.
Samsung needed to shake up the market today. Instead they unpacked a gimmick, a sixth attempt at a smartwatch, an interesting display tweak, and a phablet that ’does the same as last year’s model but with a slightly better spec sheet.’ I wanted to see a line-up that could turn Samsung’s financial performance around. I’m still looking.
With Samsung failing to impress, its chief rival Apple has an open goal for their announcements on September 9th. The other manufacturers at IFA now have an opportunity to become the chief challenger to the iPhone 6 range if they can capture the most buzz and momentum from Berlin. forbes.com
