Samsung has already been rumored to make the Galaxy S7 more affordable than its predecessor and a report from Asia is claiming the start price for next year’s flagship Android handset will be 10% cheaper than the Galaxy S6’s original price.
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Analyst Pan Jiutang writes on Weibo that rumors indicate the Galaxy S7 will be about 10% cheaper than the Galaxy S6, without offering any other details about the upcoming phone. Even if it’s just a rumor for the time being, the price drop is consistent with Samsung’s recent decision to lower prices on flagship devices to increase sales.
Last quarter, Samsung sold 84 million smartphones, 6.3% more than a year before, but the company is selling more affordable devices than flagship handsets, as it has to compete with an increasing number of cheap handsets coming from China. In fact, Samsung sold a greater percentage of smartphones priced around $200 in the September quarter than it did during the same period last year – 38% vs. 30% a year ago.
These numbers would explain why dropping the entry price of the Galaxy S7 might not be a crazy move from Samsung.
A well-connected analyst predicted that Samsung may end up exiting the smartphone business in five years, exactly because it has to compete both with Apple at the high end and against smaller companies at the low end – of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean Samsung will indeed leave the smartphone business, even if margins keep dropping.
Meanwhile, a report from Korean site Daum.net says the phone will be launched in February next year, a month earlier than the Galaxy S6 and will feature impressive specs.
According to Daum, the Galaxy S7 will feature a chip with integrated modem capable of speeds of up to 600Mbps. The phone is also expected to pack a 20-megapixel camera, possibly featuring two lenses. The phone is also supposed to come with Samsung Pay support out of the gate and feature Samsung’s response to the iPhone 6s’s 3D Touch gesture.
