Samsung might rank first in the original equipment manufacturing (OEM) global smartphone competition, but along with high quality, its brand relies on high costs.
This is apparent even in the low- and mid-tier classes, where Samsung's phones are usually a tad more costly than rival devices of similar prowess. The South Korean company aims to change this aspect and offer more bang for the buck, which means that even cheaper phones from the OEM will sport advanced technologies in the future.
A report from The Korea Herald notes that Samsung is working on offering premium features in low- and mid-range smartphones, such as a fingerprint sensor and its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay.
"Samsung is planning to deploy fingerprint sensors in budget smartphone models," the Korean newspaper report, citing an industry source.
At the moment, just the high-end Samsung models from the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series, along with a few mid-range Galaxy A handsets pack a fingerprint scanner.
The greatest challenge for the South Korean electronics manufacturer will be to load up the powerful technologies while keeping the prices of the phones low enough to stay competitive. Maintaining the right balance between cost and features might secure the success of future devices.
Samsung already has a strong presence in emerging markets and wants to dig its heels deeper in that terrain. With Chinese OEMs invading the market with alluring combinations of specs and prices, the competition in the low- and mid-tier smartphone sector is fierce.
According to the reporters from The Korea Herald, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer is king of the hill in 14 out of 15 developing areas including Turkey, Egypt and Indonesia. In Europe, more than 40 percent of the smartphones in the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania are made by Samsung.
Hwang Min-sung, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said that the company has plans to equip nearly all of its handsets with Samsung Pay. The first affordable handsets with more premium features may hit the market in the first half of 2016.
The report also mentioned that Samsung is developing a premium Tizen handset. So far, the Indian market received the Z1 and the Z3 Tizen phones with enthusiasm, which made some Samsung leaders think about extending. However, not everyone at the company sees this as a winning move.
"Tizen smartphones with the mobile payment function would have little impact on the market," Hwang pointed out.
We are very curious to see how the low- and mid-range gizmos will be priced, but the next few months will probably offer an answer.
