If I were to ask you how many phones Samsung has launched this year, what would be your answer? There was Galaxy S21 Pilot launch, of course – you probably remember them. And if you really know the ins and outs of new phone launches, you may know the exact amount of Galaxy A mid-range phones which have appeared under the auspices of Samsung since early 2021.
At least in the US I saw Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra in January. Most recently, five Galaxy A midrange phones led by Galaxy A52 5G joined the mix. It’s about eight phones by mid-April and that doesn’t even matter Galaxy A72 announced in late March, but is not scheduled to ship to the US
We are also waiting for updates to the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip product lines and maybe even a new Galaxy FE model for the S or Note product lines – or maybe both!
Friends, there are many phones that bear the Samsung name. And at the risk of sounding like a Abe in the style of Simpson, there are too many Samsung phones nowadays and maybe the phone manufacturer should think about getting rid of a couple.
Samsung, of course, is crying to the bank about this “too many phones” puzzle. Samsung has the largest share of the global smartphone market, with 19% by 2020, according to Counterpoint Research. One of the reasons Samsung may hinder Apple and various Chinese phone manufacturers is that the Korean electronics giant is launching a lot of phones in many places.
Today’s Samsung strategy is to launch a phone for every price point to attract as many users as possible. We are not yet at the point where you can go out and buy a Samsung Galaxy Steve or a Samsung Galaxy Flip for your cousin you didn’t even know the popular foldable phones, but sometimes it feels like that.
We’re not yet at the point where you can go out and buy a Samsung Galaxy Flip for your cousin. You didn’t even know which foldable phones you like, but it feels that way.
However, there are some dangers to having so many phones on offer and we are starting to see them materialize with the Samsung range. For starters, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish phones with similar names.
Take ours Galaxy S21 vs. Galaxy S21 Plus vs. Galaxy S21 Ultra comparison. If you look at the S21 and S21 Plus, the two phones separate very little, apart from the screen and battery sizes, as well as the materials used for the back of those devices. (The S21 uses plastic, while the S21 Plus has a glass back.) The processor, RAM, storage options and camera configuration are exactly the same between the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21 Plus. So why pay $ 200 extra for the Plus, unless that extra half inch of screen space really makes a difference to you?
Similarly, you can spend hours of monastic study on the three new Galaxy A phones available in the US – Galaxy A32 5G, Galaxy A42 5G and Galaxy A52 5G – and you will find only minor variations here and there. There is definitely nothing that can dramatically separate any of these three phones.
There are also practical consequences if you have all these phones at hand. Galaxy A72 announced earlier this year will not come to the US because its price would be too close to Galaxy S20 FE Samsung received many awards last year. And, of course, we don’t even know how long the Galaxy S20 FE will last – it looks like Samsung has Galaxy S21 FE In the works. (There was also talk of a Galaxy Note 20 FE, but with the decline of the S21 FE, this seems to be the safest bet.)
This brings us to another potential issue with Samsung’s approach to all phone products for everyone. You never know when a new Galaxy model is about to fall these days. Say what you want about Apple and its iPhones, but you know when new models will come. The same goes for Google and its phones – a flagship appears in the fall, along with a budget model earlier in the spring. This gives buyers confidence when they can buy a phone without having to worry that it will be instantly covered by new and improved hardware.
Samsung’s launch schedule seems to be changing these days. The company launched the Galaxy S21 launch, launching these phones in January instead of the regular February / March window for Galaxy S updates. Rumors say that the big launch of Samsung phones in the second half will increase from August to July as the company show Galaxy Z Fold 3. A Galaxy Note 21 doesn’t seem to be in the mix for this year.
Samsung would probably counter that it’s not really bad because of all these phones that flood the market and create the potential for confusion among ordinary smartphone buyers. And it’s hard to argue with a company that usually goes with Apple for first place in the global smartphone market. However, at some point, all these Galaxy S and Galaxy A and Galaxy Z models feel that they will catch up with the company – especially when it becomes harder to differentiate between different Samsung phones without a scorecard.