Android smartphone sales are slowing across the world. CNet, amongst other sources has stated that Samsung’s profits are steadily falling and are the latest company to state that all is not well.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is not selling as well as Samsung had expected – which is worrying as this handset promised (and in many ways fulfilled those promises) to be a true upgrade and a superior rival to the other top-end flagship phones out there.
Why has the Galaxy S6 been selling so badly? It’s a great looking handset, and the features are second to none. I’m positive that the lack of removable battery isn’t the main problem that is holding potential customers back.
Samsung have possibly made an error by releasing the S6 and S6 Edge around the same time. Yes, the S6 Edge does cost more, but it’s also much more of a talking point and looks good.
Consumers are a fickle bunch: If you had a plain old S6, but your mate had the S6 Edge would you feel like you both have an equally great phone? Probably not.
Of course, demand as always outstripped supply, leading to customers waiting for weeks to pick up their pre-ordered handsets which lead to a backlog.
This never bodes well for future sales, as people quickly lose interest after the hype.
This supply and demand isn’t just Samsung’s problem, though – Worldwide uptake of Android phones has slowed, and is still slowing.
Is this a worrying sign of things to come? Maybe not, but surely the world is starting to reach a saturation point, and countries such as China are hankering after the iPhone as much, if not more than Android.
This slow down was to be expected. Marginal improvements in the flagship handsets year after year can only interest people so much.
Just have a read of the reviews for some of the more mid-priced and modest Android handsets – people are content with them and are certainly happy with them when their expensive flagship device gives up the ghost, forcing them to buy a cheaper phone to see out their expensive phone contract.
People have tried Android and love it, but when you can pick up a half decent phone with your shopping, why do you need a top end device? Moreover, why would you need to upgrade every single year?
People are holding on to their phones for longer, unless they absolutely have to have the very latest technology.
Most handset contracts are now 24 months, and this will always affect the number of customers available to upgrade. Even the networks are recommending their SIM only packages to tide customers over to the next big handset release.
I’ve said it before, and I will repeat it again: Android also is too fragmented as an operating system. As soon as a new version of Android is announced, everything begins to be become obsolete. It is just possible that many customers feel cheated when their top end phone arrives with the newest version of Android on board, only for it to be superseded weeks or months later because a newer version of the OS is released and their manufacturer takes many months to push out an update.
Smartphones by their very nature are crammed full of the latest technology, but the improvements in technology are only skin deep for the majority of customers: If your phone does everything that you expect it to, do you really need a faster processor?
For many people, a decent screen is a must-have feature, but even the lower quality screens are perfectly adequate for watching videos on now, and once you’re used to your phone’s screen you don’t think about it any more.
I love feature phones. The main reason being that these phones were, pretty much, all different. You could choose a phone by picking features which mattered to you: A decent camera, connectivity options, screen size/resolution, design, form factor, etc. all came into play.
Nowadays you choose your operating system and take it from there. Pick a screen size, cost, memory options and processor speed, camera and that’s about it.
Two years ago Samsung started to provide too much choice by producing an incredible number of handsets which were all very slight incremental upgrades over each other. You could pick up a phone in this range for as little as £50. Spend £10 more and you could get a phone that was slightly better. Add another £10, and get an every so slightly better phone, and so on.
The manufacturers have effectively created a situation where most people will be happy with their handsets. Add to that the budget cuts by the Government and people are less likely to want to fork out for a newer phone which is only a minor upgrade.
Does this happen with other smartphones? Blackberry users seem happy with their phones for years. iOS fanbois will want the latest iThing, but many people just want an iPhone. Windows Phone users are now almost all upgraded to WP8.1, with the promise of an upgrade to WP10 for all of these handsets.
Is it any wonder why Android sales are starting to slow?
