Samsung – Barely a murmur

There was a huge, but deadly silent crowd at today’s launches. 

• There were lights. There were stars. There were some great products but no one seemed to be that excited by them.
• There was nothing revolutionary about Samsung’s product launches but I am hopeful we are getting towards the kind of products that play to the strengths of Windows 8.
• First up was Galaxy. Samsung has expanded the range of Galaxy S4 devices to cater to different sub-categories of smartphone user.
• The Galaxy S4 Active (Robust and water resistant), Galaxy S4 Mini (small form factor) and Galaxy S4 Zoom (optimised for imaging) were all formally launched.
• This is a good move by Samsung to more closely address the different demographics of the market but it is a worrying sign for profitability.
• If the number of devices needed to fully address the market increases then the number of devices shipped per model or SKU will fall.
• For Samsung this is bad news.
• It has no real platform strategy and a part of its profitability has been predicated on the iPhone-driven concentration of the smartphone market to huge volumes of just a few models.
• When a handset maker has shipped more than several million of a smartphone the marginal profitability becomes very attractive indeed and this has been a part of Samsung’s recent rise to glory.
• If this trend continues and the market continues to fragment, Samsung will need to put its Galaxy products onto a single platform from which it can efficiently make large numbers of variants.
• This is not a problem yet, but I can rapidly seeing it becoming one as the smartphone market matures and fragments and the number of devices shipped per SKU starts to fall.
• Launches of new ATIV products were much more interesting with the ATIV Q and the ATIV Tab 3 being launched.
• Of Windows Phone there was no sign which is a clear indication of what Samsung thinks of the outlook for this platform.
• This is negative for Nokia but should Windows Phone actually see some traction, then Samsung will be far enough behind to give Nokia a good run before the Koreans catch up.
• The ATIV Q copies Asustek in launching a dual Windows 8 / Android product.
• The idea here is to have the benefits of Windows 8 without having to sacrifice app. availability.
• This device is an interesting form factor and allows Android apps to be pinned to the Windows 8 metro user interface.
• I suspect that this device is running Windows RT and as a result is unlikely to do much in the way of volume. (see here)
• Far more exiting is the Samsung ATIV Tab 3. This is a thin and light tablet that runs a full version of Windows 8.
• It is using Intel’s Haswell.
• This allows the device to be 8.2mm thick and weighing in at 550g (less than an iPad 3) while still having reasonable battery life.
• Stick on a nice keyboard dock and there are the makings of a proper hybrid device without having to make a compromise in terms of use.
• This is exactly the kind of device that could give Windows 8 a badly needed boost and I hope that it is just the first of many.
• This gives me hope that Windows 8 can see some signs of life towards the end of this year but it is a market that will be clearly dominated by Samsung and Asustek.
• This was not the pop-up extravaganza promised but a steady evolution that should ensure that Samsung stays on top for a while yet.