According to the Korean news outlet ETNews, a member of Samsung’s staff who wasn’t named says that the Galaxy S4 has made the company experience a “crisis”.
Samsung has now realized that smartphone penetration in Western markets is nearing saturation. Unfortunately, their plan to correct the mess they’re in is to “maximize the market share with a number of small hit models, not one single mega hit model.” In other words, they’re going to be less like Apple, who releases one star device a year, and more like Samsung, meaning they’ll release a steady flow of devices that offer little to no differentiation.
No further details were provided, other than a repeat of yesterday’s news that there are going to be four Galaxy Note III variants, each of which are tailored to specific market segments.
So … is Samsung screwed? No. They’ll never be because they make the components that everyone uses to make their own smartphones, tablets, and computers. That being said, they’re at a critical time in their lives where they need to realize that they’re not kids anymore. They can’t get away with doing the bare minimum. They need to step up their game. And that almost always means a hit on profits, but it’s needed now more than ever.
