Guest Post: The Samsung Juggernaut – will it keep being the Next Is what?

by Rupam Gogoi who works with FindYogi

Remember the Samsung ads which carried the ‘Next is what?’ as an advertisement ending monologue? Well, Samsung has moved in the direction that its ads promised it would move. Next is what wasn’t just a tagline or an ad slogan with Samsung, It has been the mantra of the direction in which its products have moved, most noticeably in the last five years. It was the trailer to what its products would soon be in the mobile industry and market. In the ensuing years of the next is what slogan, Samsung went on to launch its most popular products in the Samsung Galaxy S series and the Samsung Galaxy Note series.

The effects of these next big ones from Samsung were so profound on the industry as well as the market that Samsung went on to be the market leader in smartphones, surpassing both Apple as well as Blackberry.

In the overall mobile market too, Samsung has literally catapulted itself from being the manufacturer of mobiles with vibrant displays and weak bodies to a strong mover in the low price segment as well as the mid-market segment, manufacturing competitive feature rich and attractively designed mobiles.

Samsung has capped the consumer expectation of better product features and designing to capture the mobile market today, and played prominently on the next is what statement it presented through its advertisements.

It is on a heightened competition now with the other big three from the world of mobile manufacturing: – Apple, Blackberry and Nokia.
What’s with the other Big Three?

As the Samsung juggernaut continued to roll on, the other big three of the mobile industry, Apple, Blackberry and Nokia too were moving. Where, however,is a question?

If we take a sneak peek at the movement of the three, something like the following comes into viewpoint: -

The Apple Cart: Apple, in spite of the Samsung hurdle has managed to stay on strong in the market, even though it has come down to second in the smartphone market.

However, with the death of Steve Jobs, the hallmarks of any Apple product have been hit and it is clearly visible in the product pipeline potential of Apple.

If observed in terms of the product design and engineering Apple is not up with anything that is likely to create a disruptive effect on the mobile market as Samsung’s Galaxy S series did or even its very own iPhone did.

Nokia And Windows: To be cruelly fair, Nokia lost its sheen because of its limitations in the two very important hallmarks of the applications and the OS that come with the phones and which decides a consumer buy of the same today.

However, with Windows Phone 8, Nokia has tried to move the bandwagon ahead with the Lumia series quite well, with recent launches like the Nokia Lumia 720 priced in the mid-market segments at the Mobile World Congress, definitely promising better things to come.

Nokia has moved slow in the market in the last few years, but with it being the only relevant major manufacturer on the Windows platform, it might still not be behind its bad days.

The Blackberry Boy Returns: Always one of the most traditional organizations, Blackberry slowly lost its market to the better products of Apple and the more featured and functional Samsung smartphones.

However, to take it through to the future, BlackBerry is now live with its Blackberry 10 OS and Blackberry 1o devices, the Blackberry Z10 and the Q10 respectively.

Definitely not a sequel to its earlier versions of both OS and handsets, the future of Blackberry now depends upon the disruption it can create with its new packages of OS and handsets.

The market is thus moving in different directions. While a few players are looking to disruption, the others are looking to sequels. But that brings up the Samsung juggernaut.

It has been the next is what of the last five years. But will it keep being the next is what, with sequels alone? Hard to picture that.

The Samsung juggernaut had a roll because of the following reasons: -

• The Android Apps and the Android OS


• The mix of business and day to day use of its new age smartphones

To be in track with its next is what statement therefore Samsung might not be hitting bulls eye just with the sequels embedded with a few add on features, what it would require is still the same old disruptive product packaging and design and maybe a new line up of its devices.

Author biog

Rupam Gogoi works with FindYogi which is working on its vision to be the best comparison shopping place in India and building products that support the commerce eco-system. His major interests are alternate technologies, consumer markets, products and startups which he covers extensively. A writer, a human resources guy, a startup enthusiast, a wannabe singer and musician he works on media contents, operations and human resources at FindYogi.