In short: Samsung will be replacing the Galaxy J series with several new Android handset lineups, one well-known industry insider from China said earlier today. The company will be pursuing “a new smartphone strategy” that likely entails more than just name changes, as per the same source. The claim is in line with one late summer report that already suggested the Galaxy J family is ending with the Galaxy J4 Plus and Galaxy J6 Plus announced several weeks back.
Background: The company is understood to have opted for a discontinuation of the Galaxy J series due to a wider effort aimed at blurring the lines between its entry-level and mid-range offerings, presumably because both have been struggling to compete with aggressively priced alternatives from China for several years now. One of the new series is said to come in the form of a Galaxy M revival some seven years after the last Galaxy M-branded device hit the market. The line in question may replace the Galaxy ON family which is primarily aimed at India, making it doubtful whether it will ever be released in the West. Another new product range Samsung is widely expected to introduce is the Galaxy F, or whatever name its first foldable handsets end up taking. The first bendable device from the company may be unveiled as early as next month but likely won’t be available for purchase prior to Q1 2019, insiders said several weeks back.
Impact: Whereas the Galaxy J and Galaxy A lines had to wait for up to two years to receive the company’s flagship features such as fingerprint readers and multi-camera setups in the past, Samsung’s future strategy is expected to lead to simultaneous innovation across the board. The new approach is already evident on the example of the newly announced Galaxy A7 (2018), a mid-ranger that’s also the first Samsung-made Android handset to utilize a triple-camera system.