Samsung aiming to seize stay-at-home trend with new laptops

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics has released new laptops under its new brand Galaxy Book to ride on the soaring demand for notebook PCs amid the ongoing stay-at-home trend caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The firm said Friday it rolled out three Galaxy Book laptops ― the Galaxy Book Pro 360, a convertible laptop that can be converted from a laptop to a tablet; the Galaxy Book Pro, an ultra-light laptop; and the Galaxy Book, a cheaper version of the Pro model. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 and the Galaxy Book Pro are available in 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch screen sizes with both models using OLED screens.

The Galaxy Book series has been officially launched not only in the Korean market but also other countries including the United States, the U.K. and Germany on the same day.

Samsung held a global launching event last month for the Galaxy Book products. This was the first time that the tech giant hosted an independent event promoting its laptops. Given its small share in the global laptop market, Samsung has not had any major promotional events for notebook PCs in the global market.

Market researcher TrendForce said the number of notebook computer shipments in 2020 surpassed 200 million for the first time. With various countries imposing border control and lockdown measures to reduce the virus spread, the research firm estimated the figure to grow to 217 million this year, an 8.1 percent growth year-on-year.

One of the good things about the new laptops is the Galaxy ecosystem, which lets Galaxy Book users connect with their Galaxy devices such as phones, tablets and wearable devices easily and quickly.

Samsung said it could see an increasing demand for its laptops as the number of presales for the Galaxy Book Pro series from April 29 to May 10 were three times higher compared with its previous laptop models.