Samsung’s rivals are rushing to take away some of its market share in spring as the South Korean tech giant delayed the announcement of its upcoming flagship duo, the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus. While Samsung traditionally unveiled its pair of Android flagships at the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), the company decided not to announce new high-end phones at the latest iteration of the Barcelona-based trade show. Following the Galaxy Note 7 debacle last fall, Samsung reportedly decided to take extra time to develop and extensively test its next-generation flagship. David Lowes, head of Samsung’s European marketing division isn’t reluctant to speak about those issues as he labeled the last six months as “one of the most challenging periods” in the entire history of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea.
While speaking at MWC yesterday, Lowes said the company is now adamant to learn as much as possible from its experience with the Galaxy Note 7, but Samsung’s rivals understandably aren’t willing to wait for the largest phone maker in the world to bounce back and are rushing to release new smartphones to the market in the hopes of capitalizing on the current situation. This turn of events was evident by yesterday’s MWC announcements as LG unveiled the LG G6 and Huawei debuted the new P10 and the P10 Plus, while Nokia, Moto, and BlackBerry also uncovered new product lineups, though their devices are less likely to compete with Samsung’s upcoming high-end offerings. While speaking at the sidelines of MWC, Huawei’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Yu told Reuters that the Chinese tech giant believes it has a good chance to capitalize on the current market situation, and numerous industry analysts are reportedly skeptical whether Samsung will be able to quickly regain the market share it’s expected to lose in the following weeks.
Regardless of how Samsung’s mobile division performs in the coming months, one thing is clear – the high-end mobile market will get even more competitive this spring. Seeing how an increase in market competitiveness usually directly benefits consumers, people on the lookout for a new flagship smartphone may be wise to wait until early April to make their purchases.