The new competition for Apple’s iPhone
After the image damage caused by the burning batteries of the Note 7 model, Samsung needs an innovative hit. The market leader from South Korea took a month more than usual for its new Galaxy S8 model.
Smartphone market leader Samsung wants to present a new top model on Wednesday and thus step out of the shadow of the debacle over the burning batteries of the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, is to be presented at an event in New York (from 5 p.m. CEST).
According to media reports, it should have an even larger screen, can also be controlled with gestures in some cases and can be unlocked with an eye scan. In addition, Samsung’s new personal assistant “Bixby” will be integrated into the device, as the South Korean company has already announced.
The Galaxy S models are traditionally the toughest competition for Apple’s iPhone, which leads in the business with expensive smartphones. According to previous reports, Samsung wants to bring some innovations to the market earlier, which are expected from the next iPhone in autumn. The display should fill almost the entire front of the device, with only small bezels. The Chinese provider Xiaomi showed how this can be technically solved last year.
This also allows the screen to be made larger without having to expand the housing accordingly, as was previously the case. According to information from the website “WinFuture”, the Galaxy S8 will have a display with a diagonal of 5.8 inches (14.7 cm) in the standard version – and with 6.2 inches in the “Plus” version . The current iPhone 7 is 4.7 and 5.5 inches respectively.
Five billion euros in damage
For Samsung this time it is also about leaving the fiasco with the battery fires of its Galaxy Note 7 behind last autumn. The Galaxy S8 is presented about a month later than usual because Samsung took more time after the debacle.
The double recall of the Note 7 and the industry’s first discontinuation of a smartphone model for security reasons resulted in considerable damage to the company’s image and a financial burden of the equivalent of five billion euros.
In addition, Samsung’s plan to counter Apple’s iPhone 7 with a fresh top device during the important Christmas business failed. According to calculations by analysts, Samsung’s share of the smartphone market fell from almost a quarter to the 20 percent mark – and Apple is likely to have pushed itself to the top in the Christmas quarter . For the year as a whole, Samsung can hold the crown of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer thanks to the cheaper models. At the same time, the South Korean company is getting new competition from Google in the high-price area with its Pixel model.