Tuesday, Aug 22, 2017

New York: Samsung is gearing up for the launch of its seven-generation Note series — the Galaxy Note 8 — in New York on August 23, after the total recall of the Note 7 last year.

The South Korean company skipped the Note 6 series and is launching the device at ‘Galaxy Unpacked’ event at 11am (7pm Dubai time) on Wednesday.

The 5.7-inch Note 7, which was launched in August 2016, was recalled a month later due to some models catching fire. Samsung permanently ceased production of the device on October 11, 2016, with the debacle burning a more than $6.5 billion (Dh23.87 billion) hole in its pocket and dealing a major blow to its reputation.

Daniel Gleeson, senior analyst for consumer technology at research firm Ovum, told Gulf News that the success of the Galaxy S8 [launched in April] suggests that the difficulties faced by the Note 7 will not pose a “significant problem” for Samsung.

“Samsung has a fine line to walk in reassuring consumers about the safety of the new devices as this could also serve to just remind people of the Note 7 debacle. The Note 8 is very important for Samsung and the continuation of the Note brand,” he said.

Samsung started the Note series in 2011, the so-called phablet segment, with a 5.1-inch large screen size.

“The Note range is one of Samsung’s most distinct products and of course also serves as its direct competition to the new iPhone launch [expected in mid-September]. The problems faced by the Note last year makes this an even more important launch for Samsung as it needs to prove to Note users, who remained loyal throughout the last year, that the wait was worthwhile,” Gleeson said.

The Note 8 will be slightly bigger than its predecessor and will sport dual rear cameras.

Gleeson said that reports last year indicated that Samsung had ramped up manufacturing of the Note 7 to three million units a month before the recall — double the initial manufacturing run of the Note 5. If the Note 8 performs like the Note 7 was expected to, then it should give Samsung at least $7 billion in revenues by the end of the year, he pointed out.

The price tag of the Note 8 is expected to be close to $1,000, but Gleeson said that the vast majority of people purchasing the handset will do so on a payment plan of some type, so the increase in price may not seem as steep.

“Having a much higher priced product though will also help keep the Note 8 from competing with the Galaxy S8 [and the S9 in future],” he said.

With devices like the iPhone 8, Pixel 2, Huawei Mate 10 and LG’s V30 in the pipeline, Anthony Scarsella, research manager at International Data Corporation (IDC), said that the competition will be fierce this September.

“We expect all the key players to promote their latest and greatest flagships with an assortment of deals, bundles and trade-in offers across a variety of channels in most key markets,” he said.

By Naushad K. Cherrayil Staff Reporter

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