Following the announcement of a rapidly declining profits base and the lack of growth in they mobile sector, Samsung has announced two new handsets in the mid-range market. Samsung’s declining revenue is in part due to a lack of sales at the high-end, but also the squeezing of margins in the mid-range market. These two new handsets are presumably hoping to target the latter.
The Galaxy A5 and the Galaxy A3 are touted as having “a beautifully crafted full metal unibody, slim design, superior hardware and the best possible social media experience.” and will be marketed towards the younger consumer with a fashionable eye.
That sounds like the marketing strategy of every handset maker launching a mid-range handset. So what does Samsung have that could make the break? In the case of these handsets, it’s the Samsung Galaxy Alpha.
Bringing the styling cues from the new in-house design into the cheaper handsets is in the playbook for every manufacturer, but Samsung has made a fine art of it over the last few years, including the use of its excessive marketing spend to create a halo effect over all their smartphones. The last few years have seen that strategy fail, with less return for similar effort.
Presumably the ‘A’ in Samsung Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 stands for ‘Alpha’, but without making it explicit, the halo effect of advertising is also lost.
Samsung Galaxy A5 (image: Samsung Press)
It’s not clear why consumers would be happier with the new design that tries to keep the price as high as possible. Both handsets come with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and 16 GB of internal storage. The A5 sports 2 GB of RAM, a 2300 mAh battery, and a five-inch HD screen; while the A3 has 1 GB of RAM, a 1900 mAh battery, and a qHD 4.5 inch screen.
Samsung has focused on the social networking capabilities of the A5 and A3 handsets in the launch material,with a particular focus on taking ‘selfie’ images and integrating with social networks. The former is a solid marketing angle, but may be diminished in any comparisons with Microsoft’s Lumia 735, arguably the defining selfie camera of this generation of smartphone handsets, although it does run Windows Phone and not Android
From the marketing images currently available it looks like the A3 and A5 both sport Samsung’s plastic back-plate which can be removed to switch out the battery and add in microSD cards and SIM cards. Presumably the full metal unibody is to do with the internal chassis, because it’s hard to reconcile that phrase with the bendable plastic at the rear of ear handset.
Samsung Galaxy A3 (image: Samsung Press)
