President Shin Jong-kyoon, who is the director of Samsung Electronics’ IM Sector, announced a plan not to forcefully push forward products’ release schedules just for economic Smartphone markets.
“At CES, we only introduced little bit of our products such as Galaxy Tab Pro S, Gear S2, Gear VR and others.” said President Shin on the 6th (US time) to reporters at Las Vegas where CES 2016 is being held. “We will introduce new Smartphones at ‘Mobile World Congress (MWC)’ just like before.
Although its competitors announced economic products one after the another at CES 2016, Samsung Electronics is planning not to be involved in an unreasonable competition. It is instead planning to introduce many new products such as Galaxy S7, economic products and others at MWC.
LG Electronics introduced 2 types of new economic line-up called ‘K-series’ in 2 months advance. Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo also introduced Smartphones that will go after the U.S. markets.
Huge changes are expected from American Smartphone markets in 2016. As 4 mobile telecommunication businesses abolished subsidies for phones, there will be huge financial burdens from customers when they buy Smartphones. Due to this reason, it is expected that sales of economic Smartphones will increase.
From manufacturers’ perspective, economic Smartphones are double-edged sword. Although it is advantageous in expanding shares, profitability can decrease due to intense competitions. It is heard that Samsung Electronics set a goal of selling about 400 million Smartphones this year which is similar to 2015.
Its plan is not to be obsessed with economic markets that have low profitability.
President Shin did not respond to questions asking about detailed strategies for premium markets and economic markets.
Right before CES opened, Presidnet Shin held a business meeting with President Jang Dong-hyun of SK Telecom. President Shin and Director Ko Dong-jin of Wireless Business Department of Samsung Electronics and President Jang Dong-hyun, CTO Choi Jin-sung, and Director Kim Sung-soo of Smart Device (SD) Headquarters of SK Telecom attended this business meeting. After the meeting, President Shin visited Samsung booth with SK Telecom’s executives and experienced Samsung Electronics’ products such as Gear VR 4D, Samsung Pay, Galaxy Tab Pro S, Gear S2 and others.
Las Vegas (U.S.) = CES Special Reporters wingh1@etnews.com