New reports suggest that Samsung might drop the ‘Galaxy’ branding on its smartphones. An E-Today report published on October 29 suggests this change in Samsung. The report says that Samsung is collecting ideas on changing or adding a brand title along with the positives and negatives of launching a new brand.
Samsung’s Android smartphones are all synonymously called Galaxy phones. Every Android phone of Samsung from 2009 is labeled under the name Galaxy and the term has become the most used, than the company name. All the Samsung Android smartphones starting from the low priced to the high-end models are covered under this umbrella term.
The new change of moving out of the Galaxy label suggests that the company intends to build a brand name like Apple’s iPhones. Apple has built a brand name by providing high-quality iOS smartphones under the label iPhones. But Samsung has been introducing all levels of smartphones, from mediocre to flagships under the same title and the company would have analyzed this to be a restriction of becoming a high-quality brand, and would tend to lose out of brand competition with the iPhone.
The head of global marketing at Samsung Electronics, Lee Young-hee said at CES 2024 held in Las Vegas earlier this year that Galaxy has so many lineups and people are expecting a new name when there is an innovative turning point.
iPhone in recent years has grown so much in popularity especially among young people as a premium brand and Samsung even though leading in global smartphone shipments has met with some decrease in sales. This decrease is calculated to be a cause of not having a premium brand title.
Various surveys like the survey released by American investment bank Piper Sandler last year and the 2024 Korean Adult Smartphone Usage Survey also suggest that the iPhone is the most popular and preferred smartphone among the youth and this extends even to Korea, the home of Samsung.
The children especially in Korea are getting to use Galaxy phones as they are brought to them by their parents and they do not require any high-end models. But as these children grow, they are attracted to iPhones as a shift towards more performing and high-end models.
As Hyundai Motors created a luxury brand, Genesis, Samsung might also be following the same path. The possibility of Samsung launching a premium brand surpassing Galaxy is very high.
Launching a premium smartphone brand by the already popular smartphone providers is giving too much hope as the current generation is so much moved by luxury brands. Hyundai by launching Genesis covered 1 million units in global cumulative sales in August 2023 and is driving the company to increased sales and the overall brand image.
The premium models of Samsung are indicated with the letter S or Z along with the Galaxy label. But these might not be familiar to most people other than tech enthusiasts. The general public tends to view every phone based on just the Galaxy title. Introducing a new high-end brand can change the outlook of Samsung smartphones in general.
Galaxy phones have been in the market for 15 years and its high-end model S24 series is selling really well. But recently Samsung smartphones went down the graph as the Galaxy Z Fold 6 did not reach the expectations.
The new brand title for Samsung phones is based on speculations and Samsung has not yet officially confirmed any of these rumours. Rumors of the next wave of Samsung phones are also around the corner and it is almost the end of the year and every tech giant is about to release their new set of announcements.
