Samsung’s Mobile Chief Claims The Company’s Premium Smartphones Will Catch Up To Apple’s iPhone Shipments In Five Years
Samsung head of MX, or Mobile Experience, TM Roh, was at a press conference that was held at the company’s Seocho office in Seoul. The Korean giant’s executive had already officially unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 and was ready to answer some questions, including how long it would take for the company to surpass Apple’s iPhone shipments. TM Roh was likely oozing confidence when he responded that Samsung would catch up to its biggest rival in five years.
Samsung’s head of mobile also pointed out that in 2023, the company’s foldable smartphones’ global sales would surpass Galaxy flagship sales by 20 percent
A new report from IMSN reveals that TM Roh shared some impressive figures surrounding Samsung’s foldable smartphones. The executive claimed that one out of three Galaxy premium smartphones in Korea sold this year will be a foldable, with this category exceeding 20 percent of all Galaxy flagships sales. He also believes that in the premium smartphone category, Samsung will be able to meet Apple’s shipments targets in five years, but turning that into a reality is a daunting task.
Perhaps Samsung’s mobile chief appears a little overconfident in his claims because even now, Apple has reportedly informed suppliers to prepare between 84-89 million units of its iPhone 15 lineup for the year. The Galaxy S23 sales have yet to reach even half of the aforementioned iPhone 15 shipments target for 2023, but TM Roh believes that under his leadership, Apple will have a worthy adversary.
We believe that there are two issues that Samsung is currently facing that prevent it from catching up to Apple in the premium smartphone market. The first one is the obvious lack of a robust ecosystem, and even if Samsung does not have its own operating system running on several categories, such as smartwatches or laptops, it can develop dedicated applications for them to deliver that ecosystem. The second reason is pricing.
While the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s $999 starting price is a little acceptable, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 definitely provides more utility, but customers have to fork over a massive sum, immediately limiting the total shipments both handsets will accumulate the entire year. As this technology matures, we feel that Samsung can play around with the pricing bit, but even five years appear to be an unrealistic target.
Even though the company ships more smartphones than Apple in a 12-month period, it is a combination of entry-level, mid-range, flagships, and foldables, whereas high-end iPhones can get substantially more traction as flagships alone. We are excited to see what new strategies TM Roh will implement in the coming years, and it is high time that Apple had a rival that would make the iPhone maker sweat just a little.
News Source: IMSN
Source: Wccftech
