Dubai
Samsung is trying to innovate and stay ahead of the crowd with its new curved screen smartphone which flows off the right side of the device — Galaxy Note Edge.
The world’s largest smartphone manufacturer on Wednesday showcased its latest products to the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region at an exclusive event held in Dubai, UAE, as part of an international world tour.
“The current smartphones in the market look almost the same and the Edge is the first phone with its uniqueness. People are looking for something new. It has the “wow” factor when people see it,”
Hayssam Yassine, head of telecommunications group at Samsung Gulf Electronics, told Gulf News.
For the new form factor to matter to consumers, Daniel Gleeson, senior mobile devices and networks analyst at IHS, said that Samsung needs app developers to come up with innovative uses for the curved edge. Unfortunately, the signs from the supply chain are that the Note Edge will be limited in numbers, so this in turn limits the appeal of the device to developers.
The 5.6-ich device with Quad HD display (1600 x 2560 pixels) is powered by 2.7GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 805 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It supports up to 128GB of external storage capacity via microSD slot. It also comes with S Pen stylus, 16MP camera with optical image stabilisation, 3.7MP front camera and runs on Android KitKat version.
The price is not yet fixed and the limited-edition phone will be available in the first week of December. It was launched only in South Korea.
The edge screen has the ability to show different contents — display notifications, shortcuts to apps and other functionality — and it can be used separately to the main screen even when the main display is covered by a cover.
Right now, only seven apps are there for the edge screen but Yassine said Samsung is working with developers for more apps and the software developer kit is available for developers.
“Innovation is essential for Samsung to claw back market share it has lost recently. The new iPhones take away the strongest selling point Android had — the large displays. It is up to Samsung to innovate to help both its devices and its brand,” said Gleeson.
At this point, he said the curved edge is simply a gimmick to make the product look different from competitors. This could change in the future, but Samsung would “need to put the curved edge on every phone it produces to convince developers it is serious about driving that form factor,” he said.
Gleeson said the benefits of the curved edge are less clear, and require much more effort from developers to fully exploit the potential of the form factor.
Although the side curved display is definitely unique and innovative to a phone, Nabila Popal, research manager at International Data Corporation (IDC) said that it is not as “ground breaking” as the original large screen displays that Samsung introduced. Thus, the response of the market will not be as overwhelming as before.
Since Note Edge being almost identical to the Note 4, Popal said this device is essentially competing with other Samsung devices — It will mainly attract consumers that were already decided on purchasing a Samsung device. Not sway those who wanted another brand — which is what Samsung “needs to stop its declining market share trend.
Thus, the impact to overall Samsung market share will not be significant due to this device,” she said.
Samsung is definitely attempting to “stay ahead of the pack”, and hardware engineering is its strength, particularly in displays.
“Samsung is relatively weak in software despite having approximately double the number of software developers than Goggle. The latest version of its TouchWiz user interface is a huge improvement but it still lags well behind Apple in this regard,” he said.
Popal says Note Edge will benefit the company’s declining market share, maybe reduce its pace, but I don’t think it’s enough to overturn it in the long run. Although the device is impressive and innovative, with the tough competition out there for high end smart phones, Samsung will have to do a lot more than a side curved display to overturn its declining market share.
