Will the real Samsung Galaxy S8 please stand up?
Either German website Winfuture has discovered a great source, or they made up a great deal of information concerning the Samsung Galaxy S8, which will be unveiled on Wednesday. We say this because they posted a very complete line-up for the new phone and a comparison to the existing Galaxy S7, which is currently available. Much of the information on the site has been discussed ad nauseam by others, but this collection seems to cover almost all aspects of the phone.
Obviously Samsung (005930.KS) has a great deal to make up for after the Note 7 recall, but as most consumer electronics companies do, they will just assume consumers will forget the past with the release of the new phone. This year however, due to the later than usual release date (supposedly they were doing additional testing), LG (066570.KS) has made a bit of a play with its G6, released on Feb. 26, but the real competition will be the release of the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone 8, which is expected later this year. Smartphone manufacturers, especially those with well-known ‘flagship’ phones, continue to face encroachment by Chinese smartphone vendors who remain convinced that offering almost all of the features of high-end smartphones at much lower prices will help them gain share.
Looking at Fig. 5, one can see that 7 of the 10 companies with enough share to make the top 10 list are Chinese companies, with two companies (OPPO (pvt) and Vivo (pvt)), which are technically owned by the same company, BBK Electronics (pvt), steadily increasing share (dark yellow & light yellow), while Samsung, Apple, and LG, the non-Chinese vendors, lose share on a yearly average basis (-6.5%, -11.2%, & -15.5%). While flagship smartphones get much of the publicity and advertising dollars, low and mid-range smartphones are the ones where high visibility brands and Chinese competitors meet head-to-head, and the trend is definitely not in favor of the incumbents. Samsung and Apple must make significant headway this year to keep from continuing the downward share trend, and while on an overall volume share basis, Samsung and Apple remain the leaders by a significant margin, when totaling Chines vendor share (4Q 2016), it reaches 35.3%, while non-Chinese vendors total 38.7%. It won’t take much to move the Chinese to the dominant share…
Obviously Samsung (005930.KS) has a great deal to make up for after the Note 7 recall, but as most consumer electronics companies do, they will just assume consumers will forget the past with the release of the new phone. This year however, due to the later than usual release date (supposedly they were doing additional testing), LG (066570.KS) has made a bit of a play with its G6, released on Feb. 26, but the real competition will be the release of the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone 8, which is expected later this year. Smartphone manufacturers, especially those with well-known ‘flagship’ phones, continue to face encroachment by Chinese smartphone vendors who remain convinced that offering almost all of the features of high-end smartphones at much lower prices will help them gain share.
Looking at Fig. 5, one can see that 7 of the 10 companies with enough share to make the top 10 list are Chinese companies, with two companies (OPPO (pvt) and Vivo (pvt)), which are technically owned by the same company, BBK Electronics (pvt), steadily increasing share (dark yellow & light yellow), while Samsung, Apple, and LG, the non-Chinese vendors, lose share on a yearly average basis (-6.5%, -11.2%, & -15.5%). While flagship smartphones get much of the publicity and advertising dollars, low and mid-range smartphones are the ones where high visibility brands and Chinese competitors meet head-to-head, and the trend is definitely not in favor of the incumbents. Samsung and Apple must make significant headway this year to keep from continuing the downward share trend, and while on an overall volume share basis, Samsung and Apple remain the leaders by a significant margin, when totaling Chines vendor share (4Q 2016), it reaches 35.3%, while non-Chinese vendors total 38.7%. It won’t take much to move the Chinese to the dominant share…
Samsung Galaxy S8 Expected Specs - Source: Winfuture.de
Samsung Galaxy S8 & S8+ - Unofficial Picture - Source: winfuture.de
Worldwide Smartphone Share - Unit Volume - by Vendor - Source: Statistica
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