This year, Samsung introduced new devices that look really beautiful and show what the South Korean manufacturer is capable of. Galaxy The S6 edge and edge+ are a clear definition of where the design of future premium smartphones will go, and the Gear S2 watch is a demonstration for a change that circular smart watches can be controlled more intuitively than just by tapping on the display. Anyway, even a bunch of innovations in the past year did not help Samsung to reverse the trend of declining sales of its products, even if the company is still in the top position.
However, it has competitors that even we did not expect a few years ago. The only exception is the high-end sphere, where Galaxy competition from Apple is lurking. In the category of low-end equipment, there are Chinese manufacturers who are not only popular in the most populous country in the world, but also gain their fans here in Europe, because their devices can offer a lot of music for little money. If I should call it that, the OnePlus One, for example, is extremely popular in Europe due to its appearance, and it only went on sale last year. However, Samsung is an exception. It is a company that operates on the stock exchange and has its investors, and it has to accommodate them. Unfortunately, it often happens that investors suppress innovation and give priority to profit, and then they are surprised that the company is not doing as well as they imagined.
One of the important aspects is the margin that Samsung must have on its products so that it does not fall in the eyes of investors. Well, even though its phones are more expensive than the competition, the company started making innovations in them as well and they no longer sell model after model. For example, that one Galaxy The J5, which I am currently reviewing, is a low-end device, but for €200 you get things that no other low-end device can. I was particularly impressed by the exceptionally long battery life, fluidity and high-quality HD display. For mid-range phones, for a change, Samsung started using aluminum instead of plastic, which it covered with a colored layer to distinguish the devices from other aluminum mobiles. Finally, there is glass+aluminum at the high end, where we can see similar design features in everything Samsung has already managed to introduce – S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note 5.
But even that apparently doesn't help Samsung increase its market share. On the other hand, the company might not be in a loss anymore, as it has now sent investors its expectations for the past quarter and it seems that Samsung will report a profit for the first time after two years of losses. However, profits from phones should continue to decline, and with them, their market share. Samsung is now trying to win over customers with designs and features like Samsung Pay, something that competitors can't just copy because it requires dealing with banks and especially built-in security like Samsung KNOX. The telephone division was supposed to reduce its profit by 7,7%, which is said to be due to the price reduction Galaxy S6 and stronger sales of cheaper mobiles. However, profits will be kept afloat by the production of memories and processors for other manufacturers, for example for Apple.
*Source: Reuters
