Samsung Galaxy S series products have always been known as "Android phone king". It not only reaches the highest level of Android phones in the same period in terms of design, screen and image, but also has excellent performance and is a perfect bucket machine. However, in recent years, domestic flagships have been crazily raising materials, gradually covering up the glory of the Galaxy S series, resulting in the gradual decrease in attention it has received in China. Moreover, the performance of Samsung self-developed Exynos chip is somewhat lower than expected, and it is unable to continue to maintain its performance advantages. The former King of Machines is gradually moving away.
Before 2020, the performance of Samsung Exynos flagship chip and Qualcomm flagship chip was basically the same, and there was no big performance gap between the two. But starting from the generation of Snapdragon 865 and Exynos 990, the gap between the two has continued to widen. At that time, the Exynos 990 version S20, which was launched in South Korea and Europe, was boycotted by local users because its performance was far inferior to the Snapdragon 865 version. After this, everyone's attention to Exynos chips has become less and less, and there have been rumors that Samsung will stop developing Exynos chips.
(Photo source: Samsung official)
Although Samsung still maintains the update of Exynos chip every year, the gap with Qualcomm Snapdragon continues to widen, which is already unsatisfactory. Even Samsung itself is embarrassed to apply the chip on the Galaxy S series models. However, Samsung does not seem to want to completely give up its own processor, and has also made bold statements to develop high-performance chips at all costs from next year, striving to compete with Apple .
Samsung is ready to sacrifice?
Recently, according to multiple Korean media reports, Samsung Electronics will change its smartphone strategy starting next year and will focus on improving the experience of Galaxy customers. Han Zhongxi, vice president of Samsung Electronics, emphasized at the department management meeting that should not simply reduce costs in the future, but should make Samsung mobile more market-competitive and maximize the development of semiconductor chip . Some analyst judged that Samsung is likely to develop high-performance chips at all costs to enhance the performance and experience of Galaxy phones to shorten the gap with Apple in the high-end smartphone market.
(Photo source: Samsung official)
In recent years, with the continuous development of domestic mobile phones, Xiaomi , OPPO, vivo, etc. are all launching an impact on the high-end market, and the pile of materials on flagship phones is becoming more and more fierce. Each flagship product basically uses the best screen in the industry, equipped with the strongest flagship processor at the moment, and the imaging system even uses a 1-inch ultra-large bottom sensor. The charging speed is constantly breaking through, striving to achieve the ultimate in all aspects. This all-round flagship that fills all configurations continuously refreshes consumers' awareness of high-end phones, leaving everyone with the impression that high-end mechanisms should be like this.
. Although the configuration parameters of Samsung Galaxy S series products are not bad in all aspects, they may be due to cost considerations or to consider the full product design, which makes their overall performance far inferior to that of domestic Android flagships. Take the previous generation Galaxy S22 Ultra for example. The screen is indeed strong, and this cannot be denied. However, the imaging system is really not very powerful. Although it uses 100 million pixel main camera and has excellent algorithm support from Samsung, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide angle and 10-megapixel telephoto are still a certain gap in imaging with the main camera, and the performance is not even average enough in different scenarios. Not to mention the performance of
. It is also a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. If the power consumption issue is not considered, its performance is far inferior to that of domestic flagships. PCMag test data shows that the S22 Ultra equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen1 has a running score of 1232/3433 in GeekBench, while the Xiaomi 12 Pro is 1224/3823, with a multi-core increase of nearly 400 points. Samsung's scheduling is still too conservative. Charging has become the most fatal weakness of Samsung's flagships. Domestic mid-range phones are popular with 100-watt fast charging, and Samsung King of Machines is still using 45W.
(Photo source: Samsung official)
configuration is really difficult to compare with flagship phones of brands such as Xiaomi and OV, but the price of Samsung Galaxy S flagship is not cheap at all, almost the same price as Apple iPhone , causing its sales in China to decline, and the performance of the global market is not very optimistic. Counterpoint Research data shows that Apple's share in the global high-end mobile phone market reached 57% in the third quarter of this year, while Samsung only 19%. Not only is Samsung being left behind by Apple in the high-end market, but it is even the world's number one sales position is about to be taken away by Apple.
Samsung must have realized that the situation is wrong, but it is still unwilling to pay the cost. Even if it does not have a smartphone business, Samsung can make a lot of money every year. However, Samsung is really going to change starting next year, and there is a high probability that it will launch a new self-developed chip. I hope this will help Samsung get back a little bit in the high-end mobile phone market.
The gap between Samsung and Apple is really big? In fact, it doesn’t mean
Looking at the current high-end mobile phone market, since Huawei withdraws, it is basically the world of Apple and Samsung. Although Xiaomi OV and others have achieved good results in the high-end market in the past two years, they have occupied a certain share in the domestic market and their weight is still relatively low in the global market. The Galaxy S series still has a considerable sales volume thanks to Samsung's position and reputation in the mobile phone market. If Samsung's mobile phone product strength can reach one or two levels, it is really not a chance to challenge Apple.
(Photo source: Apple official)
The reason why Samsung flagship phones cannot beat Apple, and even the gap in market share is getting bigger and bigger. Xiao Lei thinks there are several reasons. First, Apple's self-developed A-series processors have too strong performance, and it is difficult for Samsung to catch up in this regard. Most people only pay attention to the performance of Apple's A-series chips, but the biggest advantage of self-developed chips is actually the coordination of software and hardware. For some software functions, Apple can specifically enhance the characteristics of the chip in certain aspects. The software can also be tailor-developed based on the characteristics of chip , releasing all the performance of the chip as much as possible, and the software and hardware complement each other, giving full play to the common advantages of both parties to enhance the comprehensive experience of the product.
Although Samsung is also working hard to develop its own chip, Exynos does not meet everyone's expectations, and Samsung can only choose Qualcomm Snapdragon. Although this makes up for the performance shortcomings of Samsung flagships, using third-party general-purpose chips will destiny that your product will not be too far from Volkswagen. On the contrary, due to other restrictions, the situation may be inferior to others. This is indeed the case. Therefore, if Samsung wants to catch up with Apple's footsteps, the first thing it needs to do is to increase investment in self-developed chips, cooperate with Qualcomm and AMD, or to invest heavily in a few engineers, and at all costs to create a processor that is not inferior to Apple's A series, so that it has the opportunity to meet Apple in the high-end market.
(Photo source: Samsung official)
The second point of Samsung flagship is not as good as Apple's, because its product development is too cost-effective and I am reluctant to spend money to make a good product. The flagships of domestic manufacturers are all making perfect screens, images, and designs at all costs. Apple 's investment in product research and development is also not low. In the fiscal year of 2021 , reached US$21.914 billion (approximately RMB 150 billion). The most expensive one in a phone is actually the screen, while Samsung can get almost the best screen at a very low price, which is better than Apple. In addition, Samsung's memory, flash memory, and camera sensors are also the world's first-class level. As long as you are willing to spend more money on , it is really not difficult to create a product that beats iPhone, it depends on whether Samsung itself wants it or not.
The last point may be related to factors such as product marketing and promotion. The importance of iPhone brings more than half of Apple's revenue every year, and its importance is self-evident.Therefore, Apple is not stingy in marketing. In addition to serving various advertisements, it also invests in filming short films, and has never stopped hot searches on Weibo every day. Although Samsung has also invested heavily in advertising, its ability to create topics and hot topics is far less than that of Apple, and its user attention is still not high enough. Perhaps, Samsung should create more popularity for itself so that more people can pay attention and see it.
(Photo source: Samsung official)
There is indeed a certain gap in product strength between Samsung and Apple, but Samsung is not without the strength to keep a close look. In the final analysis, the mobile phone department does not pay enough attention to it and is unwilling to spend money to pay for it. Once Samsung decides to make good products at all costs, it is just around the corner to surpass Apple.
self-developed chips are really important.
has achieved success by relying on self-developed chips, and it has gained a foothold in the high-end mobile phone market, but Huawei is the same. This also directly shows that self-developed chips are really important for any hardware manufacturer. On the one hand, it can give full play to all the performance and advantages of software and hardware as much as possible to achieve tailor-made effects. On the other hand, self-developed chips are also the biggest core advantage of the brand and are the direct means to open up the gap with peers, which is very important for enhancing the status of the brand and products.
(Photo source: OPPO official)
At present, OPPO and vivo have both released self-developed image processing chips, and Xiaomi has also launched P1, G1, C2 and other self-developed chips to enhance the experience of mobile phones in terms of imaging, fast charging, etc. Although these cannot be compared with Soc chips, everyone is indeed working towards this direction. After all, self-developed Soc cannot be achieved overnight, and the investment and risks are relatively large. But I believe that with the previous accumulation step by step, there will be a natural day in the future.
Today, when hardware configurations are highly homogeneous, any two flagship phones are placed in front of you. The overlap of the configuration parameters that can be listed is estimated to be as high as 90%. Only the 10% that truly highlight the product differences and the software system. Everyone uses the same processor, screen, and flash memory, and the performance scores are almost the same, so naturally they cannot widen the gap in price. Therefore, the key to building high-end products in a brand still depends on self-developed chips. This is also the most effective way to enhance brand strength and compress product costs.
( Lei Technology filmed and infringement is strictly prohibited)
It is difficult for domestic brands to develop high-performance processors in a short period of time, but they still have to firmly follow this path. Qualcomm and MediaTek are becoming more and more powerful. In addition to improving their own products, they are also enhancing the strength of their competitors. And if they don't want to or can't surpass Apple, you're destined to never have the chance to surpass Apple. As the saying goes, a blacksmith must be strong himself. Only when you are strong can you have more initiative and choice, and you don’t always look at other people’s eyes.
summary
Samsung is the world's number one mobile phone brand with the largest shipment volume and has a significant position in the high-end market. Now it cannot withstand the pressure brought by Apple. If Samsung can really build high-performance chips that are not inferior to Apple's A-series as they wish, it is likely to change the current market structure and allow domestic manufacturers to have an additional choice on processors, forming a siege of Apple and blocking the continued expansion of Apple's market share.
From a more long-term perspective, if domestic brands want to develop and strengthen themselves, they also need to learn from Samsung's strategy of self-developed high-performance chips. Of course, our strength and foundation are far from comparable to Samsung, Apple, and so we may need to put in more time and energy, and even need multiple brands to work together to complete it. Xiao Lei really hopes that domestic brands can produce another self-developed Soc that stuns everyone, and also looks forward to Samsung next year bringing some surprises.
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