Samsung pledges to rebound in China
Samsung Electronics mobile business President Koh Dong-jin introduces the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus during a press conference at the company’s office in Seocho, southern Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Bixby to support English in May, Chinese in June
By Yoon Sung-won
Samsung Electronics mobile business President Koh Dong-jin pledged Thursday to regain consumer confidence and the company’s market presence in China with the Galaxy S8 series.
“We can never give up on the Chinese market,” Koh said during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. “We faced great difficulties in the past two years (in the Chinese market). But I believe Chinese consumers will acknowledge good products.”
He added, “We plan to launch the S8 smartphones in China around mid-May or later in the month.”
In early March, Samsung Electronics appointed Executive Vice President Kwon Gye-hyun as the new head of mobile business in China. Kwon has been mandated to boost the company’s dwindling presence in the Chinese market, according to industry sources. Samsung Electronics has continued to lose ground in the country since 2013, settling at seventh last year as local makers such as Vivo, Oppo and Huawei gain ground.
“We changed the head of our mobile business in China a month ago,” Koh said. “China’s local enterprises are rapidly pushing for technological innovations. We will make greater efforts to recover what we used to have before 2013. We will make it no matter how long it takes.”
Samsung Electronics said it has 728,000 preorders for its S8 smartphones in Korea as of Wednesday. The company also confirmed it aims at 1 million preorders in the domestic market by April 17.
Samsung Electronics will roll out the S8 smartphones in Korea, Canada and the United States, April 21. It will start selling the new handsets in about 50 more countries across Europe and the Middle East, plus Singapore and Hong Kong, April 28.
Koh said, “We are definitely drawing a greater number of preorders for the S8 series in overseas markets compared to its predecessor ― the S7.” Samsung Electronics sold 49 million S7 smartphones last year, setting a sales record for the company’s premium handsets. Both Samsung Electronics and market watchers have projected the S8 series will achieve a new sales record.
Samsung Electronics said its voice-recognizing digital assistant Bixby will need more time to be fully operational. “We plan to open the voice control feature of Bixby, May 1, in Korea to make it more complete,” Koh said. He added the visual recognition and search features of Bixby will be ready when the S8 series is officially released.
Multilingual support will take more time. The digital assistant will support English starting later in May. “Bixby’s Chinese version will be completed in June,” Koh said. “We will be ready to support foreign languages in the next two months.”
On Thursday, Samsung Electronics said it will coordinate with the authorities and NGOs around the globe to release a refurbished version of the Galaxy Note 7.
“We have mulled releasing the refurbished Note 7 after we concluded that (the fire problem) was only about its battery,” Koh said. “We are currently talking to regulatory bodies and NGOs as well as telecom companies around the world about releasing the refurbished Note 7.”
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics will release new accessories exclusively made for the S8 series in Korea.
Under collaboration with SM Entertainment, the electronics maker will roll out a smartphone cover themed with K-pop boy band EXO. Once the cover is attached to an S8 or S8 Plus, the handset automatically activates a theme, which includes wallpaper photos of the K-pop idols. More than 170 exclusive photos will be updated over the next 10 weeks. Users can continue it as a normal smartphone cover once the license for the exclusive theme expires after a year, according to the company.
“We plan to expand collaboration with character content providers and game companies such as Netmarble Games and NCSOFT,” a Samsung Electronics official said.