Samsung Hunts for Wow Moment - Essay Example

Samsung now has to maintain its new image and ‘wow’ their consumers who have now become used to the continuously new technologies delivered by mobile phone companies. What probably has them more worried is the failure of Apple to enthrall the consumers with their iPhone 5. Samsung has marketed its products in such a way that has largely been a reason for the hype. Their clever advertising strategies satirized Apple Inc. taking the balls to Samsung’s court and making it a mainstream maker of trendy mobile phones.

The new Samsung phone which was to be unveiled on 14th March at the ‘Samsung Unpacked’ event at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. This time is critical to launching a new phone because the smartphone industry is growing at a very fast pace transitioning from the ecstasy of new technology to a more clever and mature stage. The hardware developments are now more evolutionary than revolutionary; people are expecting enormous improvements in hardware and software. The area where Samsung lags behind Apple is software; where Apple has the ability to link its hardware to its own OS, Samsung uses Android technology like other smartphone manufacturers.

So to compensate for their weakness in the software department, Samsung has to depend on new software aspects such as the screen that will scroll up and down with the motion of the users' eyes. Samsung introduced new features and are planning to ‘double down on software’ as their executive informed at a technology conference. Other features include one-touch sharing between their devices. The question, however, is whether Samsung will be able to uphold its progress with the market growing so much more competitive and products becoming more and more commoditized.

What worries Samsung more is the increase in the chip prices and the fall in sales which will decrease by 35% in 2013 as forecasted by research firm Strategy Analytics. Samsung had been a leading smartphone seller; in 2012 they were on the top sweeping away 30.3% of the world over the smartphone market. The key element of Samsung’s success is its Galaxy S series which is the flag bearer of the company. They sold over 100 million units of this line after its introduction in 2010. Samsung also has many other varieties under its flag such as Galaxy Note.

However, Galaxy S. is top of the line; S.H. Chun claims that they shipped 43 million units in 2012 and the total of their sales was 60 million units1.