Samsung to add new features to mid-range phones before flagships

We all know that new features usually arrive first on the expensive smartphones and then to the mid-range ones. Samsung, however, seems to be taking a different route by introducing them to mid-range phones first.

Head of Samsung’s mobile division DJ Koh informed CNBC that the firm is taking a different approach by introducing new features to its cheaper phones first before the flagship phones to attract millennials, as sales lag on the higher-end models.

Koh said, “In the past, I brought the new technology and differentiation to the flagship model and then moved to the mid-end. But I have changed my strategy from this year to bring technology and differentiation points starting from the mid-end.”

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He informed that he is reorganizing Samsung’s mobile development team to prepare for the strategy change, the first phone to follow this shift will be 2018’s Galaxy A series phone which will be introduced later this year. Those smartphones cost around $400, marking them below the flagship phone like S9 or Note 9, but still above the kind of budget phones popular in many markets, reported The Verge.

Koh mentioned that these changes are really just about ‘focusing on millennials who cannot afford the flagship’. He said that the company could release the mid-priced models more often than just once a year if it helped boost sales, wrote Digital Trends.

This move comes as Samsung’s smartphone sale slows down, falling 20% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, a lower-than-expected sale of its high-end Galaxy S9 device, as Samsung said. Whereas, at the same time Chinese manufacturers including Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo deliver high-spec devices at cheaper prices, pressurizing Samsung in the area of the market that it used to rule.