In the run up to the launch of the latest Note series last month Elliot Mulley-Goodbarne was able to sit down with Samsung head of product management Paul Scott for an update on the technology giant
With the incoming disruption from Chinese brands like Huawei, Oppo, OnePlus and Xiaomi the pressure to maintain top in the Android market has never been higher for Samsung.
Couple that pressure with a slight embarrassment over the Galaxy Fold device which saw reviewers expose flaws in its larger screen and hinge and Samsung will have been looking forward to the latest launch of one of their more innovative flagships; the Galaxy Note 10.
Incremental improvements in the camera, screen size and thickness of the device aside, the news from the announcement revolved around the Note devices becoming a series for the first time, coming in standard, ‘plus’ and 5G iterations.
“We had record results with Note 9 compared to Note 8 and we’ve really built momentum and we are going to see the same with Note 10” said Paul Scott, head of product management for Samsung Mobile.
“On of the key learnings with Note 9 though is that our consumers still want a note experience but in a smaller compact size and so we have a 6.8 inch display but also Note 10 that is 6.3 inches.”
When it comes to the B2B sector, Scott said that a lot of the success is down to its DeX and KNOX products that are wrapped around the smartphones.
“DeX was a big differentiator for Samsung last year and backing it up with KNOX as a brand is a big element to our success, especially in B2B.
“KNOX has been tried and tested and is approved by many businesses, so from that point of view, when you are using your device using DEX, you have the fastest speeds out there with WiFi 6 and 5G but you’re backing it up with security. There aren’t that many other devices that can give you that capability.”
Samsung’s DeX system, that allows users to interact with their smartphones in a desktop environment, can now be used with any PC or Mac, launching separate application to drag and drop files from smartphone to laptop and vice versa.
DeX can also be used for Windows virtual desktop and Scott was also quick to champion Samsung’s work with Microsoft and Adobe which allows employees in different fields to make the most of their Note device.
“With that strategic alliance with Microsoft there will be more integration, more optimisation as well and the other partnership for the creative users in business is Adobe Rush integration.
“You can easily transfer your content, video and photos to Adobe and start editing whereas, in the past you’d have had to transfer to your laptop and spend time editing but people can do it on the device. You have that S pen to help the edit and the screen size to manage it as well.”
Moving forward, the manufacturer claims that the strategy behind having a specific 5G model of each flagship is to give its consumers the choice they demand and that strategy has lead to growth in shipments last year.
“It’s still early days at this stage [for 5G], and we will continually review and check what kind of consumer demand there is out there.
“We want to lead the market, we are leading the market. If you look at sales year on year the market is pretty much flat, we want to push to grow the market generally and our share [of total market volume in the market is growing 10 per cent a year, so we are pushing incredibly hard from the top end with the likes of 5G but also with the A series.”