Samsung overtakes P&G to become the world's largest advertiser. It's been a year since I couldn't ride the rising air current this year no matter how much I advertised.
Foldable smartphones are expected to cost more than 200,000 yen, and people are already asking, "Who's going to buy this?" Will there be a chance to come back from the dead? Looking back on a year of stagnation.
They are not selling well in China
The Chinese market is experiencing a significant slowdown. Samsung smartphones boasted a market share of 20% at their peak. However, due to the rapid progress of Chinese manufacturers, the market share has fallen below the comma, and for the past two years, not a single model has ranked in the top 10 best-selling models. Huawei's CEO Richard Yu, who surpassed the iPhone in August, declared, "In 2019, we can take the throne of the world's number one smartphone market share from Samsung."
Galaxy S9 at the Beginning of the End
It's a highly competitive world where smartphones will be overtaken if they don't overcome their weaknesses and strengthen their weapons, but Samsung isn't doing well in either of these areas. . It was this year's Galaxy S9 that it came out in a visible form.
It's such a subtle minor change that even people who switch models every year may have given up on it this time. "The first smartphone equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, the strongest screen" had an initial speed, but it caught up in no time, and what remained was ...
・ Wide-angle and telephoto dual cameras on the back (first smartphone)
・Close to bezelless
・AR Emoji
That's about it. Too weak to be a jumping material. I like cameras so I bought one, but the photos weren't as good as I expected. The AR emoji is simply a ripoff of Bitmoji, and the design doesn't feel anything new in the first place. Where did Samsung disappear in the era of the Galaxy S5, which was so sharp?
Galaxy S6, which triggered the spread of metal and glass sandwiches, and S6 Edge, which realized the world's first curved display on both sides. Both were models that changed the design of smartphones forever. The S7 brings back the waterproofness of the S5, has a microSD card slot, and looks like the S6. Even with the next S8, I thought, "I've never seen such a beautiful smartphone." The front camera and iris scan are solid even though it's almost bezel-less, and it's amazing that it's without a notch. The home button is now on-screen, and the fingerprint scanner assigned to the home button has been moved to the back.
But the S9 is... indistinguishable from the S8! The only difference is that the fingerprint scanner on the back has been moved from the side to the middle (although it was fine on the side). I was wondering if the Bixby button for activating the AI assistant, which is called "the button that is only mis-pressed," will be deleted, but it is still there! It's possible to assign other functions, but I think the ideal would be for a button to have only one function, and that one could do that very well. Either way, Samsung's AI assistant is rarely used even in the English version, so you could say that it was taken into consideration.
Since AI assistants are still not available in Japanese, a search for "Bixby button" will only show instructions for disabling the button.
For example, disabling the Bixby button is the main dish in the above video. You can see that the 1st and 2nd place in the Bixby app popularity ranking are the apps that everyone can take care of by disabling the Bixby button (from 6:52). Even after switching the button to the camera launch button, Bixby pops out for a moment, which is sad...
The world's largest market share, but not compatible with the latest OS
This is the biggest problem. It's strange that a smartphone maker that claims to be the world's number one still doesn't support the latest Android OS even four months after its release.
None of the flagship models support Android 9 Pie, only the mid-range A8s (a move consistent with rumors that the mid-range will be the mainstay). Even that is an Asian-only model, and support has only recently been announced. It's safe to say Samsung is the culprit behind Android's fragmentation problem.
Joke policy change to make Android skins 'free for 14 days'
Samsung has always had a software Achilles heel that it still hasn't overcome. The Android UI "One UI" announced in early November isn't as bad as the early TouchWiz, but with Google's Pixel 3 taking all the attention, it's not the time to take it easy, really. The Galaxy App Store is a mess, and AI photo editing has fallen behind.
When I finally got a teaser of Android 9 support, I was blown away by the announcement of a policy change that said, "We will switch to the free Android 9 theme for 14 days, after which we will revert to the default TouchWiz." Isn't that actually paid? I feel like my phone has been taken as collateral.
Finally loses in hardware
Although software alone is not enough, 2018 was also a result of showing horse legs in hardware. In a pure spec comparison, the OnePlus 6T beats the Galaxy S9 for $100 (aside from the lower screen resolution).
OnePlus 6T review: US smartphone market favorite OnePlus is a flagship killer
Smartphones are too expensive. I'm not the only one who thinks so. It's ridiculous to invest 100,000 yen just to make phone calls and check emails on the go. ...
https://www.gizmodo.jp/2018/12/review-oneplus-6t.html
In North America, the Note 9 is still the number one large-format smartphone and stylus, but that's because the US government has stopped Huawei at the water's edge. Wireless charging, an on-screen fingerprint sensor, and three rear-facing cameras have made incredible progress. None of that is on the $1,000 Note 9.
Advertisement is the only attack
While both software and hardware are being pushed, advertising is the only one pushing. It has surpassed P&G as the world's largest advertiser.
I'm willing to take risky bets, and it's been a turning point since I aired a commercial that turned photos taken with a digital SLR camera into photos taken with a smartphone, and it came out not once, but twice. . It's a local commercial that aired in Brazil, Malaysia, etc., but it's not a matter of size. I don't think such a thing can be done without the company's approval, so internal control is also a problem, and the image of "a company that is easy and has nothing to do" has been damaged.
There's no chance of winning unless you go all out
That's why things have progressed to the point where superficial trickery won't cut it if you want to keep the No. 1 spot in the world. All out (overall). Otherwise, there is no other way to survive.
If the flagship model, regardless of size, has dual cameras, more memory, and something that can be called the "world's first", the name of Samsung, which has led innovation so far, will cry.
5G smartphone, bendable smartphone, hole smartphone. I have to attack with that kind of thing. I will wrap up this year by saying that it is no longer the time to turn down the lights at the venue and be stingy with hidden gems. I hope next year will be a good year.
