Samsung Adds 5G Smartphones in 2022
Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) has been a leader in the 5G smartphone race, releasing the 1st 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10 5G in April of 2019, but has been lagging behind Chinese brands, who have pushed the technology given the aggressive 5G base station buildout that has taken place across the country. Samsung has lost share in China, not only because of 5G, although that is seen as a contributing factor. Based on Samsung’s current 2021 smartphone lineup (there are at least two more models slated for release this year), 5G capabilities are available in all flagship models (Z Series & S Series), but only in 33% of Samsung’s mid-tier (A Series) models, 27.3% of its lower-priced models (M Series), and 33% of its lowest tier models (F Series).
Samsung is expected to push 5G into all of its 2022 A series models next year in order to attract more users in both China and Europe, where EU members have a ‘unified’ plan for 5G buildout through 2027, have implemented 5G in at least 24 of the 27 EU countries, and are expected to have almost 36m subscribers by the end of this year (Western Europe). Samsung will continue to provide 4G LTE versions of such new models for those areas where 5G has yet to be implemented. While 5G is a bit of a different animal from other smartphone features, this is in keeping with Samsung’s plan to push down features that might have appeared only in flagship phones in the past, to lower priced models and will likely push down high pixel cameras, larger batteries, and IP67 (water/dustproof rating) to all or many of the A series phones.
Samsung will also be pushing the connectivity aspect of the company’s smartphones, expanding their ability to share information with other Samsung products, from Smart Tags™ to appliances, and given the broad Samsung CE ecosystem, using the smartphone platform as a control point for many of those products, is an advantage few of its competitors have. Moving such connectivity from flagship phones down to mid-tier phones will be a viable way for Samsung to counter Chinese smartphone brands, most of whom do not have more than a few CE products outside of smartphones. The trend with Chinese CE companies is to use a ‘smart screen’ (aka a connected TV) to control and monitor CE products, but this limits consumer reach. Given that smartphones are rarely out of reach to consumers, a phone that offers connectivity to a wide selection of CE products become more indispensable to consumers, and bringing that down to phones under $500 should help Samsung to regain some share in 2022. LG Electronics (066570.KS) has a similar connectivity system (ThinQ) but will no longer be producing smartphones.
Samsung is expected to push 5G into all of its 2022 A series models next year in order to attract more users in both China and Europe, where EU members have a ‘unified’ plan for 5G buildout through 2027, have implemented 5G in at least 24 of the 27 EU countries, and are expected to have almost 36m subscribers by the end of this year (Western Europe). Samsung will continue to provide 4G LTE versions of such new models for those areas where 5G has yet to be implemented. While 5G is a bit of a different animal from other smartphone features, this is in keeping with Samsung’s plan to push down features that might have appeared only in flagship phones in the past, to lower priced models and will likely push down high pixel cameras, larger batteries, and IP67 (water/dustproof rating) to all or many of the A series phones.
Samsung will also be pushing the connectivity aspect of the company’s smartphones, expanding their ability to share information with other Samsung products, from Smart Tags™ to appliances, and given the broad Samsung CE ecosystem, using the smartphone platform as a control point for many of those products, is an advantage few of its competitors have. Moving such connectivity from flagship phones down to mid-tier phones will be a viable way for Samsung to counter Chinese smartphone brands, most of whom do not have more than a few CE products outside of smartphones. The trend with Chinese CE companies is to use a ‘smart screen’ (aka a connected TV) to control and monitor CE products, but this limits consumer reach. Given that smartphones are rarely out of reach to consumers, a phone that offers connectivity to a wide selection of CE products become more indispensable to consumers, and bringing that down to phones under $500 should help Samsung to regain some share in 2022. LG Electronics (066570.KS) has a similar connectivity system (ThinQ) but will no longer be producing smartphones.
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