A Samsung spokeswomen confirmed yesterday that Samsung has removed its corporate logo/name from the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and curved dual-edge Galaxy S6 Edge being sold in Japan, yet provided no reason why they took the logo of their new devices. They instead are being sold as Docomo Galaxy and Docomo au Galaxy – the names of their telecom provider. 2014, was not kind to Samsung in the financial sense – slow sales of last year’s Galaxy S5, the loss of sales to low-end emerging nations to China manufacturers, especially Xiaomi, and the competition from the new and larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus – all combined to lower Samsung’s revenue and bottom line. In Japan, archrival Apple, is particularly dominant, along with Sony, Sharp and Fujitsu and Samsung is struggling to gain a larger market share…it is as if they expect to sell more of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge if potential customers do not see the Samsung name on the device.
Samsung is trying to reinvent themselves after the criticism they were facing after the release of the Galaxy S5 – a very solid device – but was mocked and doomed before it even arrived. Samsung improved the Galaxy Note 4 with a metal frame and faux leather and added a unique Galaxy Note Edge with one side of the display curved. Both devices were well received as the niche device they are, but they needed a huge success with their next mainstream Galaxy S flagship. With the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge Samsung went back to the drawing board and did away with the plastic and faux leather and used an solid aluminum unibody construction with Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and the back and in between, they put the most state-of-the-art specs currently available. Samsung also took a few bold moves and did away with a couple of their staple items – they got rid of the removable battery and opted instead for a rather small 2550/2600 mAh non-removable battery in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, respectively. They also did away with the internal memory expansion, only offering 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models…much like the iPhone. Samsung also opted to go with their homegrown Exynos 14nm processor (the first smartphone to use it) and took the Qualcomm 810 completely out of the picture. They also supplied their own brand of newer and faster DDR4 RAM and UFS 2.0 Flash Memory.
The new devices are selling at a record rate for Samsung, and even the more expensive Galaxy S6 Edge is selling as well as the normal Galaxy S6. Samsung is hoping that Japan will embrace the new models – with the Samsung name or with it removed.