Galaxy Note 7 debuts here

Koh Dong-jin, president at Samsung Electronics' mobile communications division, introduces
his company's new flagship handset — the Galaxy Note 7 — at a media event in southern
Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Samsung seeks global success through localization

By Lee Min-hyung

Samsung Electronics aims to raise the global profile for its much-hyped handset, Galaxy Note 7, possibly releasing more models tailored to meet the specific needs for each market.

"We are considering launching Note 7 with a 128 GB internal storage capacity for the Chinese market, even though the handset made its global debut with a 64 GB memory," Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics' mobile communications division, said at a press conference in Seoul, Thursday.

This is because Chinese handset makers are pushing for aggressive marketing strategies by releasing handsets with high storage capacity, according to Samsung's mobile chief.

"We will continue to accept different needs from each marketplace, and respond by releasing localized products by changing memory capacity or color," he said.

The remark came amid local reports that Galaxy Note 7 may be available with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB internal storage for Asia's largest market.

Samsung held the press event to officially introduce the new Note series on the Korean market, after its global debut in New York earlier this month.

The Note 7 costs 988,900 won ($897) here, and comes in three colors ― blue coral, gold platinum and silver titanium. The company also plans to add black onyx around October.

"We decided to unveil the black model later, as the color accounted for less than 10 percent in sales for the predecessor, Note 5," he said. "Samsung decides handset colors for new models after analyzing sales data for previous series. We did not set up a plan due to the competitive threat from Apple's new flagship handset."

Samsung Electronics also said it will offer operating system (OS) updates for the latest Android 7.0 Nougat, in two to three months, after gathering feedback from users.

"It is very important for us to offer up-to-date information with the new OS, but what's more crucial is to build a stable and seamless platform for users," Koh said. "That's why we are planning to do enough beta testing before any OS updates."

Foldable smartphone?

The Samsung mobile chief said foldable smartphones will not be commercialized in the near future.

"Foldable handsets are gaining keen interest from the media, and we are also very interested in that," he said. "But I would say the next-generation handset still needs more time for commercialization.

"We have to take various factors into account to develop foldable handsets _ including hardware reliability and user experience. We cannot say in detail when it will be commercialized, but the time is not ripe to commercialize foldable smartphones."

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