Who will be the next "Samsung" of the Android world?

[LIVEFRMNYC]

If they go Tizen.....

I played around with Tizen on a Samsung phone made for the India market. Pretty much the same as Touchwiz. It was pretty solid for a low end spec phone. On Android it most likely would have lagged a lot.

Now that IS a game changer. Fold a smartphone out into a tablet, that would be a huge hit. But it's just wishful thinking until something actually gets released, or at least shown.

I think it's only a matter of several to five years before we see something of that nature. Maybe sooner. The huge question is ......Will they implement it right for it to catch on? I'm betting yes, but who really knows.

 

[grkm3]

If they go Tizen.....

What's wrong with tizen? It runs circles around android

 

[spinedoc77]

What's wrong with tizen? It runs circles around android

With an incredibly robust app market that puts Google app store to shame.

 

[grkm3]

With an incredibly robust app market that puts Google app store to shame.

You can side load Google play store

 

[spinedoc77]

You can side load Google play store

You can install android apps on Tizen?

 

[maflynn]

I think it'll likely be Xiaomi or Huawei that will be the next big giant Android OEM. Especially when you see the market globally.

I think they would be on my short list, along with LG as possible successors to Samsung's crown.

What's odd, is I really don't get the fall from grace with Samsung, they quickly zoomed to the top, and almost as quickly they seem to be falling.

 

[Savor]

The companies I am banking on now -

Xiaomi or LG

LG have always had a bitter rivalry with Samsung in South Korea. They always been under the shadows but have improved alot since the Optimus G. Xiaomi is only 5-years old and hasn't even branched out to more Western markets. Both have brighter futures than most out there with LG being good all-around in different markets and Xiaomi offering some of the best value.

Huawei also has a shot but a slimmer one. The best days of Sony and HTC are behind them now. Same may apply to Nokia and Motorola. Chinese companies like Lenovo, Meizu, Gionee, and ZTE could soon be taking over.

I hate to say it but the company to watch out for is MediaTek. Not Qualcomm anymore. Snapdragons are now becoming overpriced turds that heat up too much.

Samsung is HUGE NOW. But TEN YEARS AGO, Samsung wasn't that big yet. They ascended during the HDTV revolution around 2004-2005 and became leading SoC makers right after. By 2010, that's when Samsung really hit its stride in the smartphone industry with the Galaxy S series followed a year after with the Note series. Of course, that was also around the time of downfall for former market leaders like Nokia, Motorola, and RIM.

 

[MRU]

I think they would be on my short list, along with LG as possible successors to Samsung's crown.

What's odd, is I really don't get the fall from grace with Samsung, they quickly zoomed to the top, and almost as quickly they seem to be falling.

We saw it with HTC. At one point they were the leading Android OEM and now look at them. Whilst its unlikely Samsung will be usurped in the near future - we can't take that for granted, there are many many OEM's ready to steal their crown.

 

[maflynn]

HTC was different, they were on top, partly because of the lack of quality phones from others. Samsung entered the picture and starting shaking things up. The industry has matured to the point where I think its unlikely to see a big player coming in and really shaking things up.

 

[jamezr]

Samsung will be the next Samsung. I think present slab designs are stagnant, but Samsung is really the only major company showing us what it has in store for the near future. They have been basically cold advertising their foldable and bendable screens. And the S6 was just a small teaser. If they succeed in making their brand synonymous with that, and it catches on, Samsung will be king in a new era of smartphones.

I'm just curious ...... if or when that era comes, will they still use Android or bring Tizen into the mainstream.

The dual curved screens on the S6 and S6 Plus are evolutionary. The bendable foldable screens are coming in 2016 or 2017. They have POC videos of these devices now. Its just mass producing them in numbers and quality and making them affordable.

 

[tbayrgs]

I played around with Tizen on a Samsung phone made for the India market. Pretty much the same as Touchwiz. It was pretty solid for a low end spec phone. On Android it most likely would have lagged a lot.

What's wrong with tizen? It runs circles around android

And Windows Phone/mobile/whatever the f their calling it is pretty well optimized to run on lesser hardware. That's not the problem. Spinedoc laid out the problem perfectly...

With an incredibly robust app market that puts Google app store to shame.

You can side load Google play store

Yeah, can do that on Blackberry devices and the Amazon Fire Phone as well. General consumers all love having to side load apps. Remind us how well those devices are doing.

Without native Google apps/services, Tizen would be as dead in the water.

I think Samsung genuinely would love to replicate Apple's top to bottom control of hardware and software using their own OS but it would be a huge mistake, IMO. They don't have the dedicated, loyal customer base that Apple has to pull that off.

Samsung isn't going anywhere...they are still making very good devices and have the hardware infrastructure to keep making mobile devices with better hardware than just about anyone. They'll be on top of the Android OEM pile for years to come...they just can't expect to achieve the same level of success because as Jamezr pointed out, the Android space is getting incredibly competitive and right now, it's coming down to price. When Motorola, OnePlus, Asus and others are starting to offer top level devices at huge discounts to traditional flagships, Samsung's bottom line is going to suffer.

 

[gotluck]

What pisses me off most about samsung it they release this fabulous hardware and then support it well for the first year, give you a major update the second year that usually gets mixed reviews because of performance along with not getting the new version of touchwiz , then abandoned the third year, lucky to get major security patch that gets a bunch of press.

These devices should last way longer.. Meh. Like the GS 4 is still better than most midrange devices coming out now, but it is not a good buy because the mid ranged will continue to be supported.

Most of the power in the gs6 as far as processing goes likely won't even be relevant for 3 years, when the device is obsolete because of software.

Forget about performance I'm talking power efficiency and heat on the process node.

Just like the snapdragon 810 is a volcano.

The a72 cores will draw up to 40-60% less power

Consumers do care about specs its how the galaxy phones got to be the king of Android.they have always lead the market with the latest specs and even the freaking iPhone 6s is nothing more then a power boost spec upgrade of the iPhone 6

Let's see what the 6s is
2gb ram ddr4 hopefully
12mp camera
Higher resolution screen hopefully super amoled
Bigger battery
40% faster cpu
60% faster gpu
Looks exactly the same as the iPhone 6

So wtf is apple doing with the s models if people don't care about specs?

Ohh crap I almost forgot the iPhone has no removable battery and no sdcard!

 

[MRU]

HTC was different, they were on top, partly because of the lack of quality phones from others. Samsung entered the picture and starting shaking things up. The industry has matured to the point where I think its unlikely to see a big player coming in and really shaking things up.

The shake up has come in though in the form of the Chinese OEMs. The revolution isn't in the flagship anymore (we can clearly see saturation point has been reached with 3 years of stagnated flagship sales numbers), it's in the low and mid range devices. That's the growth market, and it's in that lower range device market Samsung is losing out to the new kids on the block. Especially in China & India. Samsung need to take control of the low and mid end otherwise they will see continued depreciation in the mobile devision.

Of course this also applies to HTC, LG and the other more known brands (at least in the more known brands in the west).

 

[Tig Bitties]

Samsung makes great hardware, I'll give them that. Their screen display tech is top notch, and the SoC is one of the best.

But man, Touchwizz just blows, really hate it. When you have an already awesome OS to use, stock vanilla Android.

I read another compare Touchwizz to like installing Windows 95 on a brand new custom computer rig with the latest hardware. That computer may have the new Skylake platform and Intel 6700k compressor, and GTX 980Ti card, but it's ran by the outdated, ugly and crap Windows 95. That's Samsung's Touchwizz on their new phones.

 

[grkm3]

And Windows Phone/mobile/whatever the f their calling it is pretty well optimized to run on lesser hardware. That's not the problem. Spinedoc laid out the problem perfectly...





Yeah, can do that on Blackberry devices and the Amazon Fire Phone as well. General consumers all love having to side load apps. Remind us how well those devices are doing.

Without native Google apps/services, Tizen would be as dead in the water.

I think Samsung genuinely would love to replicate Apple's top to bottom control of hardware and software using their own OS but it would be a huge mistake, IMO. They don't have the dedicated, loyal customer base that Apple has to pull that off.

Samsung isn't going anywhere...they are still making very good devices and have the hardware infrastructure to keep making mobile devices with better hardware than just about anyone. They'll be on top of the Android OEM pile for years to come...they just can't expect to achieve the same level of success because as Jamezr pointed out, the Android space is getting incredibly competitive and right now, it's coming down to price. When Motorola, OnePlus, Asus and others are starting to offer top level devices at huge discounts to traditional flagships, Samsung's bottom line is going to suffer.

Tizen is based on the same kernel and is a Linux based os it runs androids apps natively there is no emulation or porting needed to make the app work.

It is NOTHING like BlackBerry or Windows phone its a ground up optimised os that is made for Samsung hardware

 

[Andres Cantu]

I hope things become more balanced for Android OEMs, that is Samsung losing market share for others so that they too can make profits and thus make better devices that can bring more innovation to the industry.

 

[tbayrgs]

Tizen is based on the same kernel and is a Linux based os it runs androids apps natively there is no emulation or porting needed to make the app work.

It is NOTHING like BlackBerry or Windows phone its a ground up optimised os that is made for Samsung hardware

But you would still have to side load the Google Play store, correct? The average consumer isn't going to side load jack squat and will look to whatever native app marketplace Samsung includes on Tizen. And getting developers to add a third ecosystem to their development plans is the problem. If it was that seamless...Samsung would've done it already.

 

[spinedoc77]

What pisses me off most about samsung it they release this fabulous hardware and then support it well for the first year, give you a major update the second year that usually gets mixed reviews because of performance along with not getting the new version of touchwiz , then abandoned the third year, lucky to get major security patch that gets a bunch of press.

These devices should last way longer.. Meh. Like the GS 4 is still better than most midrange devices coming out now, but it is not a good buy because the mid ranged will continue to be supported.

Most of the power in the gs6 as far as processing goes likely won't even be relevant for 3 years, when the device is obsolete because of software.

They don't even fully support a device in its 2nd year. Look at the watered down update the Note 3 received this year. The lack of support and lack of walk in service options really hurts Samsung. I keep saying how incredible the experience is to simply walk into an Apple store and have your phone fixed, replaced, or just educated on how to use it. Sure the carrier is also an option, but I think people genuinely like going to the Apple store like going to a bar or social event. Contrast that with dealing with a heavily accented foreign customer service rep over the phone who directs you to send the phone to Texas and wait 2-3 weeks to maybe get it back fixed if they don't reject the repair.

It's funny the people who go on about how powerful Samsung phones are, but then they don't get fully updated after the first year making that power less important.

 

[Shanghaichica]

They don't even fully support a device in its 2nd year. Look at the watered down update the Note 3 received this year. The lack of support and lack of walk in service options really hurts Samsung. I keep saying how incredible the experience is to simply walk into an Apple store and have your phone fixed, replaced, or just educated on how to use it. Sure the carrier is also an option, but I think people genuinely like going to the Apple store like going to a bar or social event. Contrast that with dealing with a heavily accented foreign customer service rep over the phone who directs you to send the phone to Texas and wait 2-3 weeks to maybe get it back fixed if they don't reject the repair.

It's funny the people who go on about how powerful Samsung phones are, but then they don't get fully updated after the first year making that power less important.

The update situation really sucks and it's getting worse not better. When I had my original galaxy note I actually used to get useful updates. Yes they were slow but at least when the update came you actually got new features like the current UI, new S-pen features, or I remember getting the multi window feature from the Note 2. Now the updates are slow and hardly bring any new features. Even if you are one generation behind the current flagship device you know that you are never going to get any of the new features.

 

[Sevanw]

I think it's important to get one thing straight. Samsung's so called "fall from grace" is so greatly exaggerated. As many have already stated, Samsung is HUGE. They cannot be compared to any other OEM (Android or otherwise) because they create the tech that they use and others use. They don't need to wait for someone else to make it. Whether its the CPU, display, storage, or RAM etc.. they got it covered. They control their own product. Now, once Tizen is matured and ready to roll out to North America and Europe, the average user won't be the wiser. Tizen will look very much like whatever version of Touchwiz is current at the time of its release to the bigger markets. And then Samsung will truly own 100% of their devices. Just look how well it's being received in the developing markets, and look how incredibly smooth it runs on the new TVs. Nothing but glowing reviews.

 

[Technarchy]

I think it's important to get one thing straight. Samsung's so called "fall from grace" is so greatly exaggerated. As many have already stated, Samsung is HUGE. They cannot be compared to any other OEM (Android or otherwise) because they create the tech that they use and others use. They don't need to wait for someone else to make it. Whether its the CPU, display, storage, or RAM etc.. they got it covered. They control their own product..

Bingo. Samsung is sitting on billions worth of intellectual property. The very same intellectual property that props up a significant segment of the entire mobile device industry.

Not a single Chinese manufacturer can come close to saying the same. The Chinese excel at cheap slave labor, and building things cheap, not innovation, or pioneering new intellectual property of value.

There is a reason the Chinese don't stray far from their borders into the global market. They know they would get skewered by demands for royalties and patent infringement compensation.

 

[spinedoc77]

I think it's important to get one thing straight. Samsung's so called "fall from grace" is so greatly exaggerated. As many have already stated, Samsung is HUGE. They cannot be compared to any other OEM (Android or otherwise) because they create the tech that they use and others use. They don't need to wait for someone else to make it. Whether its the CPU, display, storage, or RAM etc.. they got it covered. They control their own product. Now, once Tizen is matured and ready to roll out to North America and Europe, the average user won't be the wiser. Tizen will look very much like whatever version of Touchwiz is current at the time of its release to the bigger markets. And then Samsung will truly own 100% of their devices. Just look how well it's being received in the developing markets, and look how incredibly smooth it runs on the new TVs. Nothing but glowing reviews.

I don't think anyone is saying they are going out of business, obviously their business is much much larger than just smartphones. But their phone division keeps losing more and more money every year, at some point they have to decide if the losses are worth it. I'm sure they still make a profit even with the losses, but at some point that may not be the case anymore. Whether it's the Chinese, or Motorola, or Google cheaper handsets are still a danger to them. Look at the MotoX, arguably better than the Note 4 ignoring the stylus. Note I didn't say better specced I said better overall and for less than half the price, specs don't make a difference if the experience is smooth, Motorola and Apple have proved this versus Samsung still having a crappy experience with industry leading 3gb of RAM. Google also had cheap hardware once upon a time and I wouldn't be surprised if they went back to building a quality but inexpensive phone.

Common sense would say that their phone division has been in a downward spiral for a while now and their poor decisions and high prices are not making things better. Certainly this round of releases has not been an improvement.

Tizen I'm not sure about. It's interesting how many on here moan and gnash their teeth vehemently against Microsoft because they have no apps (when in reality the vast majority of apps are represented), but have no qualms about endorsing Tizen which has squat. Good luck getting consumers to side load apps, we are in the dumbification age of mobile devices.

 

[billy the fish]

Samsung makes great hardware, I'll give them that. Their screen display tech is top notch, and the SoC is one of the best.

But man, Touchwizz just blows, really hate it. When you have an already awesome OS to use, stock vanilla Android.

I read another compare Touchwizz to like installing Windows 95 on a brand new custom computer rig with the latest hardware. That computer may have the new Skylake platform and Intel 6700k compressor, and GTX 980Ti card, but it's ran by the outdated, ugly and crap Windows 95. That's Samsung's Touchwizz on their new phones.

Rubbish, touchwiz is so light these days, it flies.. Let me guess, you having used it since the s2....

 

[dec.]

I think it's important to get one thing straight. Samsung's so called "fall from grace" is so greatly exaggerated. As many have already stated, Samsung is HUGE. They cannot be compared to any other OEM (Android or otherwise) because they create the tech that they use and others use. They don't need to wait for someone else to make it. Whether its the CPU, display, storage, or RAM etc.. they got it covered. They control their own product. Now, once Tizen is matured and ready to roll out to North America and Europe, the average user won't be the wiser. Tizen will look very much like whatever version of Touchwiz is current at the time of its release to the bigger markets. And then Samsung will truly own 100% of their devices. Just look how well it's being received in the developing markets, and look how incredibly smooth it runs on the new TVs. Nothing but glowing reviews.

They are huge. I don't think that the extremely mixed responses to their new phones and phablets will have a huge impact, they can afford another disappointing generation without a problem, it's just kind of interesting to see how they make decisions for that other manufacturers have been blasted all the time (battery, no ram slot etc.). On the other hand, the great tech reviews on the first Edge didn't really seem to push its popularity, so it's all pretty unpredictable. I like the hardware, it looks neat.

 

[Tsepz]

Before the fanboys get out the pitchforks let me say this, I really like Samsung phones and think they are an innovator and really push the industry forward

Ok having said that, Samsung seems to be really alienating and putting off much of their fanbase(many do not care I realize). Samsung seems to be on a decline, who do you think will be the next Samsung and will really be forward thinking and be huge? I personally think it is a good thing for a company to fall from grace, it will just make them work harder which will be good for consumers. Who honestly really wants the same company to reign supreme for ever(Apple fanatics dont answer)?

I am betting on Huawei. They make their own custom CPUs, they also make telecom equipment and so on, a lot of vertical integration compared to most OEMs, they are a lot like Samsung and the best part is they build high quality devices. The Huawei Ascend Mate 7 and P8 series are built like tanks and they are not afraid to throw in a huge battery, the Mate 7 comes with a huge 4100mAh juicer.

All they need to do is better differentiate themselves. On the African continent and other developing countries, Huawei is already a big name brand as their strategy 2-3years ago was to build the most affordable smartphones, and they have had big success in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with great relationships with many of the networks. If you didn't know, Huawei also makes a large portion of those Mobile Hotspot devices.

I give them a year or two and they will have Samsung sweating. I have been watching Huawei for the past 4-5years, and their ascent has been pretty fascinating.