Strategic analysis of Samsung's smartphone product portfolio : countering the challenge from Chinese competitors

Abstract

After entering the smartphone era, Samsung has recorded enormous growth in sales and profits. It developed state of the art hardware technology and introduced innovative features with its flagship models, the Galaxy S series. While it emphasized high-end product development to compete with global vendors such as Apple, Samsung expanded its product portfolio to the affordable segment. In the early stages, this strategy succeeded in increasing revenues and market share. However, as Chinese vendors emerge in the global mobile device market, Samsung has struggled to keep its market share in the low-end device markets. Relatively cheap Chinese devices have attacked Samsung's affordable segment. Samsung's strategy of utilizing economies of scale and the halo effect from flagship models was not effective to compete against the price competitiveness of Chinese. Since the dynamic aspects of competition and the importance of platform are increasing, Samsung needs to build a new sustainable portfolio strategy integrating its platform service and hardware portfolio.