After multiple years of strong sales throughout its mobile lineup, Samsung has begun to experience the sobering notion that its success in recent years may not be sustainable. With sales reportedly down 60% from the same time last year, Samsung will be looking to consolidate its mobile phone efforts by reducing the number of unique cellular devices it produces by up to 30%.
In the past three years, Samsung produced a whopping 190 different cellular phones globally, which includes hero products like the Galaxy Note 4 Edge and the metal-bodied Galaxy Alpha. To put that number into perspective, Nokia/Microsoft managed to release 23 Lumia devices for the Windows Phone 8/8.1 platforms. Both of those figures make Apple look a bit unproductive when you consider the iPhone sees just two new devices per year (a cycle that only just started with the iPhone 5C/5S launch).
Samsung not only plans to reduce the total number of smartphone models it will create, but also how many phone components it will use across multiple devices in an effort to reduce costs. This sharing of components will occur mostly on the low & mid range devices but could occur in certain hero products as well.
Source: Wall Street Journal