Samsung changes its strategy for smartphones for 2023

The mobile business of Samsung is making efforts to change its strategy. It is said to be focusing more on product competitiveness and less on cost reduction. Given this rapid change in philosophy, the company is aiming to grab its leadership position from Apple.

The DX (Device Experience) division and the Korean tech giant held an executive meeting. As per reports, Han Jong-Hee, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, emphasized that the division should work on strengthening the smartphones’ competitiveness without compromising cost reduction. This sounds a bit weird. Since the company has recently cut down the expenses and other facilities for the DX division.

Samsung is aiming to be the best OEM. It indicates that Samsung has to put in all the effort in order to fight Apple. It will shift the strategy of the company from copying what rivals from China are doing, i.e., building up features intended to look good on launch pages and mass-producing disposable smartphones with conflicting designs and feature sets year after year.

The Vice Chairman of Samsung mentioned that cost reduction could be an effective strategy. This is a strategy that even Chinese companies could adopt without any trouble. He emphasized that the departments should focus on strengthening competitiveness instead of wasting time and resources on designing cost-reduction strategies.

The massive profitability of Samsung’s mobile division comes from the Galaxy A series introduced in the mid-2010s. this strategy was focused on creating ways for Samsung to contend with Chinese OEMs for market share.

Given the latest strategy, we can say that Samsung is shifting its focus from racing to strengthening the competitiveness of its products. Its only aim is to grab the top position from its greatest rival i.e., Apple. This latest strategy is reflected in the recent apparent decisions of the company. One is the utilization of the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset for the latest Galaxy S23 series. It has done so to avoid splitting the market between Snapdragon and Exynos. We can say that this strategy is focused on cost reduction.

Where this mass adoption of Qualcomm chipsets could even enable the Samsung team to develop a better competing in-house chipset that may be introduced for flagship smartphones in 2025.

If this is the case then the Galaxy S23, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 should be improved more than ever. Though, it indicates a big hit for the Galaxy A series specifically the low-cost devices that the company might release next year.