The first three months of the year has seen Samsung Electronics Co. has struggled which has raised the stakes for its new release, the Samsung Galaxy S6. The company’s net profit during these months until March 31 came to $4.3 billion. This figure is 39% lower than that of the previous year. The market expectations were a 30% decline, making the results worse than the prediction of analysts. Samsung’s mobile division experienced another drawback as its profits fell 57% lower than that of 2014. This was because buyers were opting for Apple Inc.’s iPhone 6 and Chinese made devices by brands such as Xiaomi Corp. However, their positive aspect came in the form of a 10.6% rise in the mobile operating cost for the quarter (Linish, 2015). This increase was because of better sales in midrange smartphones and lower marketing costs. With such tremendous profit declines, Samsung looks up to the Galaxy S6 to rebuild its depleted profit margins (Lee & Cheng, 2015).
The Review.
The world today is capital driven, curved and moulded by business. It is imperative for any new product to be well tailored for commercial purposes, as this is the foundation of trade and the fundamental market. This dictates that Samsung S6 should be more applicable for business purposes as it offers the largest market for smartphones users. The S6 is sleeker and slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy S5 with the added security features and Samsung’s software making it ideal as an overall business phone.
The phone has an attractive design that justifies its premium price. Arguably, it is more stylish than the iPhone 6 with a sturdy aluminium frame that is incomparable in durability with Galaxy S5’s shiny plastic trim (Nuckles, 2015). The back is made of Gorilla Glass, just as the front. As much as this makes it look better and feel great, the Gorilla Glass is slippery creating a drawback of dropping even when placed on an even surface such as an office desk. The model comes in three colours, black white and gold, each providing a very attractive effect. With the iPhone 6 weighing 4.55 ounces, the S6 offers a slimmer (0.27 inches thick) and heavier (4.9 ounces) alternative (Nuckles, 2015).
Business users are usually concerned with the amount of screen space they can work on. The Galaxy S6 has a 5.1-inch display. This makes it suitable for tasks that are screen-intensive such as editing a spreadsheet. It compromises between the 4.7-inch display of Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5.7-inch screen. Additionally, it offers a high resolution of 2560×1440 pixels to give incredibly sharp and crisp texts and pictures. The 512 units of the brightness of the Galaxy S6 make it perfect for outdoor use (Nuckles, 2015).
Performance is a core pillar of business. However, performance and speed are two aspects that intertwined; one cannot be achieved without the other. When it comes to speed, this smartphone does not disappoint. It possesses an octa-core processor and a 3 GB RAM. This makes it fast enough in handling different workloads and multitasking. The device achieved a score of 5120 when Geekbench 3 tested its overall performance (Nuckles, 2015). This is way ahead of iPhone’s 6 2931 and HTC’s One M9 3818.
When it comes to security, the S6 is equipped with a fingerprint reader in its home key. In Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5, users had to swipe their finger over the home key to unlock their devices. This technology was not reliable. In the S6, users simply place their finger on the home button and wait for one or two seconds for their devices to unlock. This is very useful as the device can be locked without worries over password screen. Additionally, the phone offers the Knox workspace. This security software which has two different versions. Large business make use of the Knox Enterprise Mobility Management Suite while small businesses employ My Knox. Both of these allow for protection of the user’s private information. When the device is lost or stolen, My Knox allows for remote locking of the device, and data wiping using GPS (Sacco, 2015).
The interface is an important part of all smartphones.The S6 uses TouchWiz, a customized version of the Android operating system. Samsung’s interface is known to be packed with overwhelming features that are not necessarily useful. However, the S6 has been trimmed to rid all useless extras that made phones confusing (Stern, 2015). Moreover, the keyboard is well spaced, easy to tap and offers very accurate predictions.
When it comes to video conferencing, the device has a 5 MP front camera located above the display. This camera takes crisp photos with good colour accuracy. This is an advantage to business users since they can meet with colleagues remotely using applications such as Hangouts and Skype. The audio delivered is also relatively loud so there will be communication problems.
In the Galaxy S6, Samsung has ousted two main features when it comes to battery and storage. The battery cannot be removed, and there is no slot for the SD card (Stern, 2015). The permanent battery has created a drawback where one cannot swap a secondary battery when experiencing low charge. This was done at the expense of making the device slimmer and sleeker. Lack of an SD card slot, on the other hand, has made it impossible to extend he phone’s storage capacity if need be.
However, the sealed battery has not largely affected the battery life of the smartphone. In a test that cycles through various websites with the brightness set at 75%, the phone lasted little over seven hours. This is somewhat less than its predecessor Galaxy S5. The iPhone 6, on the other hand, took six hours thirty minutes. Additionally, the Galaxy S6 has a fast charging, capable of attaining 50% charge in 30 minutes (Stern, 2015). Using the wireless charging pad will take three hours to achieve fill charge.
Challenges Experienced After The Launch.
On April 10th, Samsung witnessed a disappointing launch, as no lines of buyers were witnessed in the various Samsung retail Centres in the main cities such as Seoul. Even though this occurred, buyers still turned up in low numbers to purchase the curved screen S6 phone. Many buyers have however expressed disappointment in the lack of a screen protector for the curved display. Furthermore, buyers gave been held back in purchasing the device. This is because of the limited supply of the curved screen phones. With its release garnering high demand, Samsung’s mobile chief, J.K. Shin warned on the limited supply attributed to the challenges experienced in manufacturing of the curved screens (Lee, 2015). Samsung Electronics Co. through their S6 phones also has the task of convincing buyers that their device is more impressive than their major rival, the iPhone 6. This is critical especially with the poor sales the Galaxy S5 had.
The Apple-Samsung Rivalry
The battle between Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. has been quite fierce. Samsung’s new smartphones, the S6 and S6 Edge are playing a crucial role in helping the company in reclaiming its top position in Smartphone sales. While Samsung experienced a 57% drop in the first quarter of the year, iPhone, on the other hand, had sales that soared up to 40%. Sales of Apple smartphones in Asian markets in the recent past has experienced significant positive shift with sales soaring high (Linish, 2015). This has threatened Samsung’s top position in this market.
New figures from Counterpoint Technology Market research reveal that as much as the new Samsung Galaxy S6 is outselling its predecessor, it is still having a hard time in keeping up with the iPhone 6 (Cheng, 2015). Counterpoint further revealed the Korean-based mobile manufacturer has shipped 10 million devices to distributors and retailers in the three weeks that preceded the launch of the S6 and S6 Edge. Six million have already been sold to mobile phone users (Cheng, 2015). This number has exceeded the global sales of the Galaxy S5 within the same period last year. However, it is not enough to surpass the April performance of apple Inc.’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that have remained popular eight months after their launch last fall. That resilience had been attributed to the company’s strong brand (Cheng, 2015). The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are Apple’s pioneers into the large-screen smartphones, which are very popular among Asian buyers.
The Galaxy S6 Edge has received a very good reception from buyers that has exceed the demand. The premium device has however proved difficult to mass-produce. One of Counterpoint’s research directors, Peter Richardson explained that he is positive that the new devices could still achieve strong sales, but the window of opportunity is small. Consumers may not be very patient with many alternatives being available at the market. Counterpoint went ahead to further reveal that as much as the sales for the Galaxy S6 are rising, the impressive sales are not at the expense of Apple’s smartphones but Samsung’s. The Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy A have experienced a fall in sales of 30% to 40% (Cheng, 2015). The repercussion of such trends is lack of growth of Samsung’s market share despite the launch of their flagship devices.
Domination of the Android Market
Data from Counterpoint Research has put iPhone 6 in the top spot in terms of sales in April. IPhone 6 Plus took the second position while Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge took the third and fourth position respectively (Spence, 2015). However, the Galaxy handsets went on sale on April 10th. This means that with such a short window of sales and less marketing spending as compared to last year, Galaxy S6 has outperformed its predecessor, the Galaxy S5.
The poor reception of the Galaxy S5 led to smaller profits and a crash in revenue for Samsung Electronics Co. The South Korean Company is however looking to recover from this with the sale of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Nevertheless, even as weak as the company was in 2014, no other Android-powered competition challenged her in the domination of the Android market. An exception would be Xiaomi. With its success being only limited to China, Singapore and India, the company made the closest operation of Android to Samsung. The Shenzhen-based manufacturers employ scarcity to stir demand and sales. Such an approach will make it difficult to rival the numbers of Samsung but will generate brand recognition (Spence, 2015).
Another key Android competitor is Sony. With the launch of Sony Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z2 tablet, Sony achieved a substantial amount of public recognition. Unfortunately, Sony experienced a drop in handset sales of 8%. It had a projected number of 50 million but by the end of the year, Sony had sold only 41 million handsets. This led to the smartphone division losing about $1.7 billion (Spence, 2015). The company fell short of its strategy that focused selling in of high-end handsets at mid-range prices.
First Feedback
The respondent found the article very informative. It clearly placed Samsung Electronics Co. in today’s smartphone market. The article brought forth the company’s main competitors and their participation in the market. By quantifying the level of sales and the gains or drops in profit margins, the competitive nature of the mobile market was brought into fine focus. Moreover, it showed the challenges the Korean-based company faces and the strategies put in place in tackling them. Apple Inc.’s role in the overall market trends were also well analysed and described. In addition to this, Sony and Xiaomi were also well featured.
Second Feedback
The second respondent described the article as being informative and useful. By going through the article, a business individual can make a decision on which handset will be most suitable for him/her. All the merits and demerits of the Galaxy S6 were well explained with the features and specification also being well explained. In addition to this, the comparison between The Galaxy S6, iPhone 6 and HTC One M9 were well outlined and will be very useful to consumers when purchasing handsets. This is because all comparisons were made in relation to business and how helpful they would be to a business driven individual. Apart from their features, the placement of these devices reveal the current global consumer demand. Such information will also help in directing a buyer on the type of handset that is best, depending on the reception is has had globally.
References
Cheng, J. (2015, June 2). Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Struggles to Keep Up With Apple’s iPhone 6. Retrieved from
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