To Offset Lack of New Model Releases This Year
Samsung Electronics will lower the prices of its flagship Galaxy Note series. The company appears to be trying to offset a lack of new model releases this year by lowering the prices of existing models.
The company has cut prices of the Galaxy Note 20, a model released in September 2020. It is unusual that the price of a flagship model less than one year old has been adjusted. A subsidy for the Galaxy Note 10 was raised, too. The Galaxy Note 10 was launched earlier than the Galaxy Note 20.
Samsung Electronics has no plan to release a new edition of the Galaxy Note in 2021. This means that a vacuum will be created in the launch of a popular model that sells 10 million units a year. Market experts predict that the retail price of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will also be lowered soon and subsidies for the model will be further raised.
Although the price cut is not big, it is unusual for the retail price of the Galaxy Note series to fall less than a year after its launch. As for the Galaxy Note 10 released in 2019, its store price was marked down only in one year and three months since its launch. Because its retail price was cut only by KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus are maintaining their initial store prices.
Considering that a new Galaxy Note model will not be launched in 2021, Samsung Electronics is planning to make up for the gap in launching the new model by lowering prices, some market observers say. The Galaxy Note series has been released in the second half of every year. It is a steady seller with sales of between 8 million and 12 million units in the first year of its release. Although foldable phones such as the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 are scheduled to come out in the second half of 2021, their market size is only about 5 million units. It is not enough to fill the gaps to be left by the Galaxy Note series.
The problem is that the Galaxy Note series will not be released in the second half of 2021. "The Galaxy Note is the highest-end product in Samsung Electronics' Wireless Business Department, but we applied the S Pen to the Galaxy S21 Ultra in 2021," said Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics' IM Business Division. "We feel a big burden about launching two flagship models with the S Pen in one year." However, Koh dismissed rumors about the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note series, saying, "We are preparing to launch a new Galaxy Note model next year."