According to some reports from a Korean media house, The Bell, Samsung’s Vice Chairman, Jay Lee, may be planning to merge their Galaxy S line of smartphones with the Galaxy Note series. Although this may lead to drastic changes in how Samsung develops and publicise its flagship phones, there are many factors why this may actually be a logical move for Samsung.
Samsung’s market share in the low-end and mid-range segment has been reducing constantly due to Chinese vendors which provide better specs at a much lower price than Samsung. And while they are still going strong in the Android flagship segment, the ever-increasing prices of flagship devices are pushing the users away. Many of them are now switching over to less pricey mid-ranged devices from other companies which are becoming more powerful with every new model and are continuously reducing the gap between flagships and mid-range phones. Another reason is that there are way too many similarities between the two series of devices by Samsung.
When Note 8 was launched last year, owners of the previously launched S8+ found it to be very much similar to their own phone and found no reason to upgrade. The only differentiating factors for Note 8 were a larger display and the S-pen, which is useful to a very specific class of customers. The same thing can be expected this year too with Note 9 and S9+ if Samsung doesn’t make any significant changes to this year’s Galaxy Note. According to some reports, Samsung has kept a sales goal of 12 million pieces for the Note 9, a little bump from last year’s goal of selling 11 million Galaxy Note 8. This shows Samsung is aware of the position it is in regarding the Note series and how some people still prefer the S series of phones due to its much more user-friendly form factor with the same features as the Note.
There were some other reports claiming Samsung is going to launch three different variants of the Galaxy S10 with the S10+ featuring a bigger display than the other models.
If the reports actually turn out to be true and Samsung actually merges the two series of smartphones. We can expect the Galaxy S10+ to come with the S Pen, which has been exclusive to just the Note series till now.
So the S-series fans can still buy the Galaxy S10 and get the experience they’re used to, but for those looking for the Note series features, like the S-pen and larger display, they can go with the bigger Galaxy S10+.
Merging the two lines of smartphones means Samsung will save a substantial amount of money on development, designing, and manufacturing. Reducing the number of flagship options will make some space for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy X with a flexible display which will be the most premium option offered by Samsung.