Yes, the feature phone market still exists, especially in developing and under-developed countries. Although Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone brand, it ranks third in the feature phone market as per a new market report. CounterpointResearch stated in its new report that over 74 million feature phones (cheap phones with numeric keypads) were sold during Q3 2020.
Samsung is tied with Tecno to third place in the feature phone market, and it has a market share of 10%. According to the new report, the South Korean tech giant sold 7.4 million feature phones during the third quarter of this year. In India, Samsung’s feature phone market share was 18% in India. iTel is the world’s biggest feature phone brand, with a market share of 24%. HMD Global, which sells Nokia-branded devices, has a 14% share of the feature phone market. India’s Lava is the fifth-largest brand in the global feature phone market.
In the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, which is the world’s largest feature phone market, Samsung stood at the fourth position with a market share of just 2%. The feature phone market is contracting year after year, and shipments declined 17% in July-September 2020 quarter compared to Q3 2019.
Samsung and MTN have combined efforts to donate 500 units of Samsung Galaxy A2 Core Smartphone to the Federal Ministry of Health for data capturing and case reporting of COVID-19.
The ministry stated this in a statement issued by its Director, Information, Media and Public Relations, Olujimi Oyetomi on Tuesday in Abuja.
According the statement, Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, expressed appreciation to the delegation of Samsung and MTN Nigeria led by Adetunji Taiwo, head of Mobile Samsung West Africa for the donation.
The minister also appreciated the contributions made by individuals and organisations through donations of medicines, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the ministry for the containment of COVID-19.
Ehanire said that he sat with his team daily to receive situation reports from every level – States, Local Governments, Treatment Centres to see how to review treatments of COVID-19 patients.
The minister said that part of the challenges they face in doing so was the challenge of communication and data reporting.
He said that the donations by Samsung and MTN of the sets, SIM Cards and data were useful.
“Nigeria is very grateful; we shall make the best use of the items and integrating them to whatever that we have to improve service delivery,” he said.
Ehanire told his visitors and donors that his team was trying to reduce the rate of infection and improve service delivery in order “to keep our fatality rate lower than what we have in other countries”.
According to him, Nigeria has 2.2 per cent fatality rate of COVID-19 while other countries have four and five per cent.
He said: “We hope that we can keep these fatalities lower with adequate messaging and appropriate information dissemination; and of course, the technical aspect of carrying out testing, isolation, treatment, etc; all of these data-driven and getting the entire system working smoother.”
Earlier, Adetunji Taiwo. who read a message on behalf of David Suh, the Managing Director of Samsung West Africa, said the donors were dedicating their resources “to help so that we can emerge stronger together”.
“Let us stay safe,” the statement quoted Suh, as saying. (NAN)
Samsung has unveiled a folding handset at an event in San Francisco.
It described its Infinity Flex Display as “the foundation of the smartphone of tomorrow” and said it intended to start production within months.
When unfolded, the device resembles a 7.3in (18.5cm) tablet. When closed, a separate smaller “cover display” on the handset’s other side comes into use.
Samsung has teased the concept for more than five years and had been vying with Huawei to show off a device first.
However, both were upstaged a week ago when little-known start-up Royole unveiled a foldable phone of its own.
Samsung said the new design involved the invention of new materials
Unlike Royole’s FlexPai, Samsung obscured the final look of its device. It placed it in a case to hold off revealing the design until a later event.
It also did not disclose how it will brand the phone.
However, it did reveal that the forthcoming handset would be able to run three apps at once.
Justin Denison, the executive who unveiled the handset, noted that when folded up the device fitted “neatly inside” a jacket pocket thanks to the displays involved being thinner than those on earlier phones.
Unlike the FlexPai, the two sides of Samsung’s device lie flat when closed. But this comes at the cost of there being noticeable breaks in its bezel, at least on the prototype demoed.
Shipments of Samsung’s smartphones were 13.4% lower in the July-to-September quarter than for the same period the previous year, according to market research firm IDC.
Although the sector as a whole shrank over the 12 months, the South Korean firm still underperformed, with its market share slipping from 22.1% to 20.3%.
But analysts say a flexible phone has the potential to strengthen Samsung’s brand and boost interest in its wider family of devices.
“We’ve already had squeezable, swivel, clamshell and even foldable phones,” commented IDC’s Marta Pinto.
“Differentiation is super important.
Samsung’s smartphone sales are declining as it faces serious competition from Huawei and other Chinese brands.
“If it can bring a new and really interesting device to the market it could be a chance to regain momentum and return to growth.”
Google is also holding a developer event of its own for Android programmers.
One of its engineering chiefs announced that it would soon add support to the operating system to allow other manufactures to create foldable phones of their own.
It also tweeted an animation of the concept in action.
Finally, some interesting innovation in the smartphone space. Or smartphone and tablet space, I guess you could say.
A new form factor can be a huge boost to device-makers, but only if it makes sense.
A flip phone made previously big devices pocket-sized, and then smartphones brought button-less interaction to our palms.
But what will foldable screens bring?
One of the reasons why Samsung teased this device at its developers conference was to give software-makers a chance to think about how to make the most of the new possibilities a foldable screen might bring.
There’s a reason why just about every new smartphone up until today looked the same: it worked.
To go foldable, there’s likely to be big trade-offs on price, screen quality and perhaps weight – the device Samsung teased today did look chunky.
I’ll hold back on a verdict until I get a chance to hold one for myself.
IBM Simon: The first mobile phone to offer a touchscreen user-interface – but its battery only lasted an hour.
Siemens S10: The first handset with a colour display – although only red, green, blue and white could be shown.
LG Prada: The handset debuted a capacitive touchscreen – detecting finger taps by changes in the display’s electrical field rather than pressure.
iPhone: Apple made use of “multi-touch”, detecting several points of contact – allowing pinch-to-zoom and other interactions.
Nokia N85: First phone with an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display, letting it show deeper blacks and better contrast.
Samsung Galaxy Note: Although not the first “phablet”, the handset proved there was demand for a 5+ inch display, despite claims it was “comically huge”.
LG G Flex: The curved design was derided as being a gimmick, but points the way to the true “bendy” phones of the future.
Sharp Aquos Crystal: The phone’s “edgeless” look foreshadowed today’s trend to keep bezels to a minimum.
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge: Samsung’s first handset to wrap its screen over one its sides used the extra space for notifications and app shortcuts.
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium: The smartphone premiered a 4K display before it was easy to obtain such ultra-high definition mobile content.
Essential Phone: The start-up beat Apple to featuring a camera notch in its display, which allowed the rest of the screen to extend upwards.
Royole FlexPai: The California-based start-up surprised the industry when it revealed the “world’s first foldable phone” last month.
