Invincibility lies in oneself, the possibility of victory lies in the enemy.
Sun Tzu "Art"
After 2011, when Samsung overtookNokia (and then immediately Apple) in sales, its leadership position has never been threatened by anything. Samsung is now the only major phone maker to survive the last decade. All other Android smartphone companies have grown over the past few years. All of them come from China. Everyone is extremely aggressive, ambitious and growing, biting off each other’s market shares in all price segments except the most delicious and expensive ones. Samsung is in a different situation - it only needs to maintain its position to maintain its leadership in the smartphone market. According to the classic of military strategy, Carl von Clausewitz, the defensive form of war is in itself stronger than the offensive form. The author of the famous textbook “Marketing Wars,” Jack Trout, agrees with him, directly saying that the market leader in a marketing war always has more chances (resources, room for maneuver, and so on) to win. The war for leadership in the smartphone market in 2019 will definitely be included in future business textbooks thanks to the never-before-seen intensity and pace of events. The new phase of the trade war between the United States and China gives it additional piquancy, becoming another factor influencing the course of events, tipping the scales to one side or the other. And intuition suggests that it is too early to put a final stop on this story. What is Samsung doing in turn to maintain its leadership? Let's figure it out together.
Product strategy
The outcome of the battle as a whole consists of the sum of the results of all private battles.
Karl von Clausewitz "On War"
Of course, I don’t have it before my eyesinternal documents of the company regulating the course of the war and strategic directions of strikes. But a lot can be learned from the obvious actions already taking place in the market. Samsung is changing its product lines under the influence of the market situation, the pressure of competitors, changing user preferences (who themselves don’t know what they don’t want to give them yet) and technological progress. What do we see in the Samsung product strategy?
Flagship S-serieswent out of reach of competitors (strictly speaking,there is also Apple with its own separate universe and its own rules of the game in it), producing Android smartphones in a more expensive segment (by the way, I predicted this at the beginning of the year). The Galaxy Note series went there even earlier (and this year we will see a continuation of the story with the new Galaxy Note 10 - it is obvious that it will also be released in the form of expensive versions for technology pioneers who are not used to denying themselves anything). Apparently, this strategy is bearing fruit: the company recently announced that in Ukraine the Samsung Galaxy S10 flagships have overtaken last year's Galaxy S9 in sales
NewM-seriesbecame a real response to expansionnumerous cheap Chinese smartphones and is intended for sales in developing countries. Rozetka representatives won’t let you lie – at the start of sales, the Samsung Galaxy M20 was in short supply. Here you have a 5 Ah battery and NFC support, which is in demand in our country (we are in 5th place in the world in the number of transactions on phones according to Mastercard and Google), and which Chinese models do not have. And a separate slot for a memory card (not counting 2 SIM cards), and even progressive USB-C, which you won’t find in inexpensive phones. The release of the Galaxy M10 on the market can improve the situation in an even cheaper segment. The ideology of the M-series is simple: all other things being equal, the buyer will choose a famous brand rather than a no-name one. And if Samsung offers the best technologies (NFC, USB-C, capacious battery, then even more so). M-series smartphones are sold only online, which is also a response to aggressive marketing strategies of competitors.
For those who want to know more
Instructive for understanding leader positions onmarket is the story of the war for Tylenol's leadership in the United States, described in the chapter "The Battle for Mount Migraine" in Jack Trout's book Marketing Wars. In June 1975, Bristol-Myers decided to launch its “same but cheaper” equivalent. It all ended sadly for her (but not for the leader - Johnson & Johnson).
Finally, Samsung’s main “victory weapon” becomesA-series, which will simultaneously hold a sharemarket, and an acceptable margin (and not just one thing, in the case of the S-series and M-series). This year, the Galaxy A line of smartphones includes 8 models at once - from A10 to A80, capable of providing a choice for every budget and taste. At the same time, Samsung has canceled its budget J-series (although it is still on sale), giving its functions to the A-series, which until this year never had a budget model. And the key advantage in the market (which Samsung will definitely use for promotion) will be… Super AMOLED screens, available only to her. Add to this the confidence of customers in the brand, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and confidence in the future. Samsung is the only non-Chinese company on the list of the largest smartphone manufacturers, so it cannot in any way be affected by the consequences of the still ongoing trade war between the United States and China. And it doesn't need to issue official statements that its partnership with Google is rock-solid.
What are Super AMOLED screens
We first heard about such screens long ago.2010, the year when Samsung released the Samsung S8500 Wave smartphone. The main feature of this technology, which is a development of active matrix OLED displays (AMOLED), islack of air gapbetween the light-emitting layer and the protective glass, making the displaythinner and brighter than competitors. All this had a positive effect onimproved energy efficiency. All these years Samsung has kept Super technologyAMOLED is “only for itself”, using it at first only in expensive flagship models. But this year, thanks to the same technological progress (production volumes are growing, which means the cost of screens is gradually decreasing) and increased competition, Super AMOLED screens are becoming more accessible and appearingin the middle class models starting with the Galaxy A20. Of course, modern Super AMOLED displays – These are not only bright screens that allow you to see the picture in the bright sun, but also180 degree viewing anglesAndlow response speed of the touch screen, which you will never see from no-name manufacturers. It is worth recalling one more feature available only on AMOLED screens:Always On features, allowing you to see the clock, charge levelbattery and notifications on the off screen. This is truly extremely convenient, and not a single user who encounters this opportunity will want to give it up, especially considering that it consumes absolutely nothing. And this feature is available in most models in the line, with the exception of the A20 and A40.
What is interesting line Galaxy A
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The best defense strategy is the courage to attack oneself.
Jack Trout "Marketing Wars"
Look at how balanced the whole looks.A-series line of 2019. I am glad that the strategies of reducing the model range are winning on the market, which allows to simplify the choice for the consumer. A species diversity is achieved by choosing the color of the body and increased memory:
- Samsung Galaxy A20: the most affordable model on the market with a Super AMOLED screen (recommended retail price is 5,499 hryvnia). Frameless screen with a diagonal of 6.4 inches and a drop-shaped notch. Dual camera, 4000 mAh battery, support for NFC, 4G, USB-C and fast charging, unlocking on the user's face.
- Samsung Galaxy A30 (RRP from 6,499 hryvnia per version3/32 GB): the optimal ratio of price and capabilities - a mass model that will suit the vast majority of buyers (its cost is very close to the average price of a smartphone on the Ukrainian market): 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2340 x 1080, dual camera with elements of artificial intelligence, recognizing up to 19 scenes.
- Samsung Galaxy A40 (RRC 7,499 hryvnia): An interesting model for those who do not like "shovels" and looking for something that in 2019 can be called a compact body. This model has a Super AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 5.9 inches, an increased amount of RAM up to 4 GB, and another 25 megapixel front camera is an excellent youth model for gamers and selfie lovers.
- Samsung Galaxy A50 (RRP from 8,499 UAH per version4/64 GB): a model for those who are looking for something more interesting and more technologically advanced. In addition to the Super AMOLED screen, this smartphone has an in-display fingerprint scanner (a technological trend this year) and a triple camera that allows you to zoom in and out of objects while shooting, switching between lenses with different focal lengths.
- Samsung Galaxy A70 (RRC 12,999 hryvnia): A real gift for active users of mobile applications is a large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400x1080, a battery with the highest capacity in the range - 4500 mAh, a triple camera, a 32-megapixel front camera for selfies and fast 25-watt charging.
- Samsung Galaxy A80 (RRP 19,999 hryvnia):and this smartphone is interesting for its unusual engineering solution and is suitable for lovers of everything non-standard and experimental: this is a unique model on the market with a rotating camera module that unfolds when the user needs to switch to the front camera and back. This model has flagship characteristics (and the same price): a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2400x1080, a dual camera module with 48 and 8 megapixel matrices, 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 128 gigabyte drive suitable for storing 4K video. A real gem for geeks (which we will introduce you to more soon).
I would like to end this story with one more quote.Jack Trout: “Companies don’t create leaders—customers create them. The true leader in a category is whoever they consider to be the leader.” Who will end 2019 as the leader in the smartphone market depends only on us, the buyers. Samsung has made its move.
For those who want to know more
- “We are in the HYIP zone” or why operators are not in a hurry to launch 5G
- Overlooked war: QLED TVs are winning
- Who needs bending Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X smartphones and why their price should not surprise you
- The turning point: why the Huawei P30 is a landmark model for the market
- Why Turkcell is cool in Turkey and lifecell in Ukraine is not