Samsung is set to launch three new smartphones to add to its Galaxy series – the Galaxy Star, Galaxy Pocket Neo and the Galaxy Win. This has increased confusion among consumers because of the already large Galaxy range of smartphones. Whilst introspecting on this branding disaster, Samsung CEO Kwon Oh Hyun has asked his staff to tackle the crisis quickly and effectively. While Samsung has given Apple’s iPhone a run for its money by constantly innovating with new smartphones that garner excellent reviews, the top-brass at the firm are said to be unhappy with some aspects and are expected to usher in a host of management changes within the company.
Although Samsung is churning out record breaking quarter after another in its smartphones division, group head Lee-Kun-hee maintained a guarded stance against complacent behaviour. These statements in the recent past have signalled intent to re-shuffle the management hierarchy. An example of this was the establishment of two new CEO positions in March at the launch of the Galaxy S IV. These moves lead to Boo-keun Yoon and JK Shin from the consumer electronics and the mobile department respectively joining Kwon Oh Hyun at the helm. However, these new changes may not be as easy to go about because Samsung Mobile, being an intricate corporation, retains more than 60 percent of the product value chain, which leads to the forging of ties between the displays, chip and research divisions of the company.
This change, however may not necessarily bad as it could help Samsung compete against Apple in the tablet category. According to a report compiled by PC Mag, Samsung continues to pool its efforts into generating higher revenue on the hardware side of the market and yet, miserably fails at generating the same kind of revenue when it comes to the app market. This mainly substantiates itself because 90% of the profit earned by virtue of ads marketed on an Android based Samsung device is transferred to Google, while Samsung merely manages to scrape a bare-minimum of 10%. This is because Samsung phones rely on apps being purchased from the Google Play store.
A change in management may help Samsung create an ecosystem that can compete with Apple and also reduce its dependency on Google for software based revenue. Will Samsung be able to leave behind these lost opportunities by finally giving impetus to software based revenue? Only time will tell.
