Exclusive Editorial Part 2 - Where the world of mobiles, VR and wearables is headed?


Last time we explored the likes of Apple and expressed our expectations from them as well as tried to predict their future fortunes.

Today, we'll be exploring an old big gun, Samsung and a newcomer into the VR industry, FOVE.

Samsung

Samsung undoubtedly is one of the oldest manufacturers in the hardware industry. Been around for more than 70 years, they have earned a respectable place in this industry. Samsung is dubbed as #1 smartphone manufacturer almost every year by critics. Good feedback and sales are always good aren't they? Wait we missed something there, Samsung gets great feedback true but the amount of sales their phones deserve never seem to come to them. Why? Lets explore below:

Galaxy Smartphone Series

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge released this year came with a lot of innovation from Samsung's side, not in the hardware industry. Their critically acclaimed Galaxy S4 was slammed for it's plasticky design and the same happened thing happened to S5 but in less amount overall. Then finally Samsung heard the pleas of its customers and released a full metal design smartphone with great specs and look overall.

Thanks to this and mid-range Galaxy A-series, Samsung's Q1 earnings shot up. They recorded $44 Billion revenue with $5.3 billion operating profit and the latter would supposedly go up considering the sales of Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. While these are all great statistics but if you compare this revenue with that of Q1 2014 in which Samsung recorded a $51.8 billion of revenue and $8.2 billion of profit, then you'll see my point.

No matter what great products Samsung releases, they profit go down by one margin or the other. So, what's the cause of all this? Competition? Undeniably yes? Samsung lacking in some areas? Perhaps no for this time ONLY.

Most of Samsung's profits come mid-range phones like the Galaxy A series. Samsung could effectively target this division and effectively improve its results overall. Rather than releasing tonnes of variants of the same flagship, I believe Samsung should release one variant. Combine the best features of all other variants and walaa, you have an awesome flagship at your making. Plus, releasing Special Editions like the Iron Man Edition of S6 Edge is also a great strategy to promote sales. Although, I would appreciate it more if they wouldn't come in limited shipments and be available to a broader audience.

Aside from the flagship series, Samsung also releases the ever popular Note phablet every once a year while one can obviously tell that there isn't a noticeable difference between Note 4 and Note 3 but still, despite they are Samsung's better selling phones.

Note series I reckon is one of Samsung's best inventions and series to date. No other phone or phablet can effectively handle pen and phone combination and Samsung as always, has stuffed in a boatload of features into the Note that can keep you busy all day long.

Predicting Samsung's future, I think the upcoming S7 and S7 Edge may not have that much difference from the ones we have now. There is a level of one creativity a group of people can have and as far as I think many notable features are already available. The next one will not be as popular as the current S6.

Note series, on the other hand, could have a new set of features. Samsung could be facing a possible competition from Xiaomi in this regard too who are also releasing their own Note phones but at an extremely low price in comparison. To tackle this, Samsung would supposedly be working up its own strategy and new cool features to maintain the attractiveness of it's own Note series.

Samsung Galaxy Gear VR

Aside from all that, Samsung is serious about VR and it is a really good sign. Gear VR has been designed in collaboration with Oculus. It's available for a pretty low price of $299 and users general reviews have been positive.

While one may indicate that VR gadgets don't have a market yet but they do in the future. Preparing for future and enabling steady progress in these very products is a very good strategy on Samsung's behalf. Samsung can easily get user feedback and release better products until becoming one of the best contenders in this market. There are features I want from VR tech, I'll describe them below in my short piece on FOVE VR headset.

FOVE: The Next Generation VR Headset

I have been in favor of FOVE since the day I saw it. There are many reasons for that:
Unlike other VR gadgets, FOVE actually tries to define VR computing by making it easier to do stuff. While Microsoft's Hololens is intended to be based on full scale computing and gaming, FOVE is a bit different. For example, at one angle they demonstrate the use of  FOVE as a gaming gadget for high resolution gaming. Not like we have enough these already huh? But then there is something else, FOVE is designed to analyze the person's thoughts and emotions as well. Alongside they have demonstrated it can also be used to help a disabled person give commands to a near by robot to help the person out. This is entirely a new concept and something that has been required for a long time. This concept can help out dearly in the medical field and give new life to disabled persons. This is one solid reason why I am so supportive of this project. This project can define a new era in medical field.
These are some thoughts to ponder about.
Till next time, be sure to leave your thoughts about these 2 manufacturers in the comments. I look forward to read them!

No comments

Powered by Blogger.