Samsung mobiles strategy for the first quarter of 2022
Samsung is the largest mobile phone company and the only challenger to the Apple iPhone juggernaut. With two years of lockdown and economic downslide, Samsung has taken a few measured steps. While no one really knows the Samsung plan, we might take a few guesses as to how it will unfold.
The Samsung arsenal
Neatly divided in the following categories.
- Galaxy Z – Ultra premium
- Galaxy Note – To be discontinued
- Galaxy S – Flagship
- Galaxy A – Powerful midrange
- Galaxy M – Affordable power horse
Z series comes under a category which cannot be affected by market conditions and Note series has been planned to be discontinued. So we need to focus on the three most formidable series under the Galaxy name, S, A and M.
The first move
At the start of the year Samsung quietly launched the affordable flagship Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. Fan Edition has all the premium features minus a few costly ones. This reduces the price of the handset by a great deal. It uses the in-house Exynos 9 Octa 990 chipset paired with 8GB RMA and 128GB storage. The phone has a triple rear camera with 16MP sensor, 8MP telephoto sensor and 12MP ultra-wide sensor. It is priced at roughly half of that of the S series phone which is quite a bargain. Going by the reviews on Amazon it was quite a success and highly rated.
Samsung followed it up with an ultra budget launch, the Samsung Galaxy F23 in March 2022. It has a 5000mAh battery with 25W fast charging. Powered by Snapdragon 750G octa core processor with 4GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. It was the right move in the budget segment.
Both S21 FE and F23 did well in the market but Samsung had to get the next move right.
Launch of the flagship
Samsung Galaxy S22 was released somewhere between S21 FE and F23. As a flagship it has all the latest features what one could hope for. At a price point which is totally affordable. Take the case of the model S22 Ultra. Brightest and best AMOLED display. In-built S pen slot with the pen more smoother and faster than before. Tough aluminium frame with sleek design. Amazing camera with low light photography coming out the best.
S22 Ultra is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor made with 4nm chip. Even with 8GB RAM it is super smooth without any lag. Even though it is an affordable flagship, sales will remain sluggish due to the pricey factor.
What comes next – Galaxy A, F & M
M series has 52 and 32 in 5G versions and M 21 & M 12. Even though the M series remains the best selling series ever, Samsung took a big gamble to unleash the Galaxy A53 and Galaxy A73 side by side both in 5G versions. With A73 as the higher version, these two are 10K Rupees apart. In this price difference you get slightly slimmer and lighter phone with a better camera. But the moot question remains, will the extra 10K make it worth. A53 has the Exynos Octa core processor while A73 has the Snapdragon 778G.
Samsung has also released the budget option Galaxy F23 5G. Armed with the Snapdragon 750G with 6 GB RAM this handset has already broken all records with about 7k ratings in just a month. Review count on Flipkart is about 4.1 stars out of 5. F23 has a 5000 mAh battery.
M33 5G on the other hand is not doing so well at all. In less than a month it has picked up around 400 ratings with most of them being one star. Primary complain of customers that the box does not contain a charger. Looks like the ‘no charger’ experiment did not go well. It is scoring poorly at 3.2 out of 5 stars. Even though it has a monster 6000 mAh battery and the latest Exynos 1280 Octa core processor, that haven’t cut much ice with the audience.
The M series of Samsung Galaxy has always been the bulk of sales in the mid range segment. The last great giant was M52 5G which had the Snapdragon 778G processor. What might just bail out Samsung this time will be the expected successor M53 which will arrive in May 2022.
