Samsung is reviewing its mobile division after sharp decline in handheld sales

[Redaktion]

Samsung's entire mobile business seems to be in trouble and the Korean giant is currently investigating the cause of the sharply declining Galaxy S21 sales amplified by supply chain management problems. Maybe Samsung should first look into adjusting the prices versus the Chinese-based competition.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-is-reviewing-its-mobile-division-after-sharp-decline-in-handheld-sales.553297.0.html

[Dominik-L.]

I know some reasons:

- (bad) CPU/SOC performance (especially against Apple's)
- (bad) battery runtime (especially against Apple's iPhones which have ~30% smaller batteries, but offer much more battery runtime)
- use of plastic for the smallest S21-series-device

[kek]

Perhaps Samsung will understand once and for all (this is like the third time they have been in a similar situation) that taking hardware features out of their flagships wont motivate anyone to buy them, and in fact, it might motivate people to move to another brand instead.

They also made a mess again on their midranges, raising prices and putting out poor devices, along with wasting money on launching a lot of 5G devices, when not even a third of the world is running towards that yet. They should have kept prices the same as they were in 2019.

Also, OneUI is suddenly becoming Touchwiz 2.0. They are putting so much stuff into it that it's slowly becoming too cluttered with options

[Michael Tech Guy]

It's so straightforward when you stop to think about the smartphone market for a second.

Why would I, a consumer, spend €1300 on a smartphone that has a hole in the screen, doesn't have a 3.5mm audio jack, doesn't have expandable storage and potentially will receive harmful updates like the Tab S7's green screen and other issues, when I can spend €500 on a smartphone that isn't punctured, has audio out, has expandable storage and will be exactly as mediocre as it is in terms of performance, in exchange for said performance being mediocre?
Sure there's a flippyphone, there's a folding phone, but they still lack features common to the cheap phones, and no a software feature that hides the puncture by disabling the whole space of the screen around it and an adapter that's only going to make the type-C port more filthy than it already gets in regular use are just stop-gap solutions to problems that didn't exist until Samsung's executives decided to create them, for penny-pinching or other reasons.

It's the reverse world where the cheaper phone is the more cheerful of the two.

[Someonewhocares]

I enjoyed my S8, and it still works wonderfully, but Costco had a deal for the S10 for ~$300 so I upgraded as I wanted the camera features.

This last month, Verizon gave me $800 for my S8, and I upgraded from the S10 to the S21, and the S21 was on sale, so I got it for -$200.

The S10 is still not performing wonderfully, never a slow down, and I can't tell much difference between it and my S21. I got a Watch3 thrown in as well, and yet my overall bill goes down per mo.

I would imaging sales are down mostly because phones are very expensive, yet also very capable past 4 years. I liked the slim form factor and edge screen more on the S8 than both S10 and S21.

[Muhammad Anhar]

Their Ax2 series and Note lineup are the reason the S series keep declining. They should made S Ultra lineup the new Note lineup and keep S21+. The plastic back should go to A series, not S21.

[fionarei]

No 3.5 jack, no sd slot, no charger kills it for me.
And I've been S series fan since the beginning.
Now I'm using Vivo, much cheaper.

[Dorby]

Bad features and bad battery life makes them a no-go. Exynos is still terribly slow and inefficient compared to A14, and the removal of headphone jack, microSD, and charger has been a huge blow to an already declining innovation.

Unless you're dropping cash for the Samsung ecosystem including Dex, S-Pen and etc (which most people are not), the competition at differing price points are just so much better.

[JLThom]

Also....pandemic shutdowns. Consumers worried about if they'd still have jobs. Pandemic still not on the "down" trend. Most businesses are not operating near pre-pandemic levels.

Yes consumers still buy stuff. But realistically - waiting on another new phone cycle is a no-brainer since summer 2020. All the consumers that buy new when first available has gotten their copy. Now the remaining 6mln-7mln units come from unplanned or impulse purchases - while shopping & seeing co-workers with theirs.

They shouldn't have had high sales expectations for 2021.

[Andre L]

They have removed the headphone jack, power wall, sd card and the screen goes from curved to flat unless you buy the Ultra. It seems every 2nd security patch also includes new software I don't want and cannot remove just disable and even then some don't even allow that. Sometimes if feels like Samsung is trying to be like Apple. If I wanted an Apple product I would just get one. if Samsung wants me to upgrade to one of their newer phones and not a competitors, then do like their competitors and give me a reason to.

[Auditman]

Enable esim for north american user!!! Google and Apple has them.

[Tupelo]

Samsung just doesn't get it. The have a similar cluelessness to LG but less fatal.
Will they ever listen to customers?
I guess their product managers would rather drive the company off a cliff than listen to what customers have to say.