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By Francisco Jeronimo, in Mobile MARCH 15, 2013

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Galaxy S4: Samsung “Unpacks” A NewMobile Experience

After

unprecedented weeks of speculation and rumours, Samsung finally announced the Galaxy S4 mobilephone last night in New York. Never before has a Samsung smartphone caught so much interest. Thisshows how strong the brand has become in recent years, but it also shows that Samsung is one of themost innovative phone makers.And end-users have already recognised it. On the other hand all the media buzz is driven by a single

question: will this device be able to challenge Apple and impact the market in an unprecedented way? Ibelieve the Samsung Galaxy S4 may represent an important milestone for the Korean company as it maybecome the first smartphone to outsell an iPhone.

By the end of 2011 Samsung overtook Apple and became the biggest smartphone maker in the world. In2012 Samsung shipped 218 million smartphones, 30% of total worldwide smartphone shipments. Thesuccess of its large portfolio and transition from the mid-tier to the high-end has granted Samsung a solidfirst position in a very competitive market. Samsung does have areas in which it can improve, most notablywith average selling price of its devices.

Apple has maintained the ability to keep its smartphone prices at a premium compared to that ofSamsung. Second, Samsung has yet to have an individual model which has outsold any individual Applesmartphone. For example, in 2012 Apple shipments totalled $USD 96.5 billion, 33% of the total worldwide

market value, followed by Samsung with 31% or $USD 91.5 billion.When looking at individual models Apple continued to outsell the Samsung flagship devices. The Galaxyportfolio (Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III) shipped less volume than the iPhone “portfolio” (iPhone 3S,4, 4S and iPhone 5). Samsung has been sustaining its market share on the mid/low tier smartphones.The Samsung Galaxy S4 can be a game changer for Samsung. I believe for the first time this device hasthe potential to outsell the next generation of iPhone, assuming that Apple will incrementally improve the

next version of the iPhone.From the hardware perspective Samsung improved the body of the device, which now looks and feelsbetter than the Galaxy S III. The body is covered with a metal band, which gives it a premium look and feel.At the same time the plastic backing, which was found on previous Galaxy devices, is still present.Samsung clearly needs to innovate its device materials to keep up with the developments seen from HTC,Sony, or even Nokia.What really stands out is the range of software features that Samsung announced at the event. Thecompany has utilised the device sensors, including new features like temperature and humidity, to gain anadvantage by differentiating from its competitors.

By launching the Galaxy S4 by the end of April, as opposed to June or July, Samsung will take advantage ofan almost exclusive sales period of several months where high-end competition is minimal. This will putpressure on Apple to further innovate the launch of the next iPhone. I believe this will make competition atthe high-end of the market extremely difficult for competitors possibly forcing them to focus on low marginopportunity.

email@domain.com

Francisco JeronimoFrancisco Jeronimo joined IDC in June 2008 as research manager for European Mobile Devices.

Based in London, he is primarily responsible for research that covers mobile handset trends across

Europe. He is also responsible for the European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker program.

Francisco has been w orking in the telecom industry for 10 years in countries such as Japan,

Finland, and Portugal. Before joining IDC, Jeronimo w as responsible for the mobile devices business

of LG in Portugal, in particular developing the open market channel and the business w ith

Vodafone. In Portugal, he w orked w ith all the mobile operators and managed the distribution

channel of the second-biggest w holesaler. He launched a mobile softw are development company

and did project management and consultancy in mobility for several companies in different

industries. Before that, in 1998, he started w orking for Nokia R&D Center in Japan and then in

Finland. He has a master's degree in management from Oporto University in Portugal and is a

email@domain.com

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DiscussionDiscussion CommunityCommunity ShareShare

• Reply •

Chris tian Harris • 3 days agoM o d

I wish they'd change the design of this phone. The new HTC One

looks like a better Android handset.

0

• Reply •

Jan Daws on • 3 days ago

As anticipated, the device features a slightly larger screen, an improved

camera, and beefed up processor power and memory. The company also

augmented various features previously available, including its eye-tracking

capabilities. The Galaxy S 4 is a worthy successor to earlier members of this

line, and will doubtless sell well. But it highlights a couple of the key

challenges Samsung faces.

Firstly, having innovated rapidly over the last several years to vaunt itself into

top spot in the world smartphone rankings, Samsung now faces essentially the

same challenge as Apple: how to continue to improve its devices year on year

when existing phones are already top of their class, and there aren't obvious

shortcomings?

And secondly, how to set Samsung's devices apart from other devices that

share the Android operating system that provides so much of the

functionality? As rivals such as HTC and Sony up the specs of their devices

and provide ever better hardware, it becomes more and more important for

Samsung to differentiate on software and services.

0

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Recent Comments

Christian Harris

I wish they'd change the design of this

phone. The new HTC One looks like a

better Android handset.

Galaxy S4: Samsung “Unpacks” A

New Mobile Experience · 3 days ago

Jan Dawson

As anticipated, the device features a

slightly larger screen, an improved

camera, and beefed up processor

power and memory. The company also

augmented various features previously

available,...

Galaxy S4: Samsung “Unpacks” A New Mobile

Experience · 3 days ago

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