The company entered the market with curved displays with the introduction of the Galaxy Note Edge; but these new devices will be much more flexible. In fact ZDNet reported that users will actually be able to fold the device in half.
Apart from new innovations like the flexible phones, the company has also decided to cut costs and reduce the number of smartphone models they sell by 30 percent, beginning next year.
There is no official news from the company as to the number of models which will be discontinued or will be reduced.
ZDNet reported, “We will secure production capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 [flexible displays each month] by the end of next year,” said Lee Chang-hoon, vice president of business strategic team, Samsung Display, during Samsung Investor Forum 2014 in New York. “There will be no company [except Samsung] that has this great production capacity by 2016.
Given the growing competition, this seems like a smart move on the part of Samsung as the company can now focus on manufacturing quality products instead of launching innumerable smartphones weakening their brand image.
The Korean company’s earnings preview clearly highlights the rapid decline of its mobile business as poor sales of its top-end Galaxy smartphones hurt its component businesses, such as advanced display called OLED. Heavy marketing costs also undermined profits.
Lee also said during the event that the company was planning to lower production costs of AMOLED, which is currently more expensive than LCD, to lure more customers.
“Within three years, we will balance our captive account and outside account to 50:50. We will be able to increase volume [sold to others] comprehensively,” he said.
Robert Yi, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations at Samsung took a shot at Xiaomi and said, “They are a mysterious entity. I don’t know where they create profit”. He also questioned whether Xiaomi could maintain the same strategy of saving costs by selling and promoting its goods exclusively through online channels.
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