The problem is nobody sees these phones as premium they're just expensive.
The solution is to release fewer phones, give timely updates and support them longer (Like Apple).
The solution is to release fewer phones, give timely updates and support them longer (Like Apple).
My wife went into the EE shop ( UK mobile company ) recently to see what was on the market as her old Galaxy S2 was dying.
She came out with a list of six Samsung phones alone and a couple of Sonys. Is a Galaxy Alpha better than an S6? What's a Galaxy Mini? So bewildered by the permutations that she just threw away the list and bought a second-hand Galaxy S4 on eBay. Potential sale for Samsung lost.
Android vendors might think they're satisfying all possible market requirements but actually they're confusing potential customers. As you say, probably easier just to go to the Apple store and choose between two.
Nobody seems to have picked up on the fact that Apple's success was also based on extreme simplicity: they sold just one model with a variable amount of memory. That's it. They didn't diversify their line until very recently, when they started to feel a bit insecure ("will people really like such a big screen? Fuck it, let's ship both") -- IMHO this simplification helped tremendously in selling to demographics that would have otherwise steered clear of "those nerdy gadgets".
Featurephone-like strategies make sense for upstarts looking for "a market, any market" and small players trying to carve niches; I would have thought Samsung was big enough to play smarter these days.
Not necessarily a bad thing in a grand scheme of things. Apple's hardware for example is famous for commanding rather high price on a second-hand market. This trend helps a lot in justifying high price point for a new unit, further strengthening margins.
Apple still gives support to 4 year old iPhone 4s. though it's lagging a bit. but after a year buying such premium device, you start to get updates late or no at all.
Also they are waterproof and generally good. I love mine and sometimes walk around like a living advert for them - hoping they can stay in business for many years.