Last week Samsung brought forward the release date of the Galaxy Note 4, and the phablet is now on sale with three of the major South Korean mobile phone carriers (reports The Korean Times). Originally scheduled for availability in October, the positive public reaction to Apple's iPhone 6 Plus has forced Samsung into an aggressive defensive play.
Setting a target of shipping 15 million Galaxy Note 4s in the first month after launch is ambitious, and I think Samsung will struggle to convert the shipped stock into sales, even with the Note 4's SIM-free price being less than the launch price of the Note 2 and the Note 3.
Samsung has traditionally relied on a heavy marketing spend to promote its devices, and the Note range is no exception. Unfortunately marketing spend in the company is down, and following a drop in revenue and profits (see Forbes' coverage of the Q2 earnings report), Samsung 's strategy has been to rely on Q4 sales of the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to revive the fortunes of the mobile devices section of the company.
That strategy can be seen as a classic case of 'The Innovators Dilemma', and a company sticking with the formula that granted them success in the past. That's a strategy that was not going to deliver any radically new results. There could have been a change of strategy announced at the Berlin IFA, but no. Samsung did demonstrate a product that could have been a nice differentiator, but the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (a Note 4 with the curved screen creating a 'digital spine') has now been revealed as a limited edition prototype and will not be available for general sale.
Apple's iPhone 6 Plus is also an iterative design, building on previous iPhone handsets and adding the larger phablet styled screen. Apple's PR team might be behind the curve on #bendgate, but the 6 Plus (coupled with the 4.7 inch screened iPhone 6) has had a stellar first week of sales. Anyone buying a 6 Plus is clearly not going to be buying a Note 4 in the near future, and the gamble of providing a fashionable alternative to the iPhone 6 in the Galaxy Alpha has not dampened iPhone sales.
To react so quickly to a competitor, to bring forward a planned release data, and to apply a price cut on day zero sales, says much about Samsung's lack of complete confidence in the Note 4. It will likely sell well, and be one of the more successful Android phablets, but the outlook is becoming clear. If Samsung doesn't believe in the product, and is already cutting desperately needed profit margins to shift stock, then its profits and dominance of Android are threatened.
