Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 9 skews more youthful
Thai
Samsung Electronics Co, the local distributor for the mobile phone king, is focusing on youthful buyers with the launch of the latest flagship Galaxy Note 9 after the world’s second-largest phone maker, Apple, was overtaken by China’s Huawei.
Samsung will make the Galaxy Note 9 available sooner than scheduled, on Aug 24 instead of in September, with deep discounts offered through bundling programmes with mobile operators of up to 15,000 baht, compared with 10,000 baht for previous models.
“Thailand is one of the key markets of Galaxy Note, with a several hundred thousand user base, and we are among the first country group for which Samsung offers pre-booking and product availability,” said Wanna Swuddigul, chief marketing officer of Thai Samsung Electronics.
The new Galaxy Note 9 with S Pen will broaden the user base to young high-flyers, with the upper band at age 28, compared with previous Note users who were mostly 30 and up.
Wichai Pornpratang, corporate vice-president for IT and mobile communications, said Thai people work 50 hours a week on average, compared with the global average of 36.3 hours.
The new Galaxy Note 9 is designed for work-life balance with a 6.4-inch display, higher performance and the S Pen that comes with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support and connects with the phone.
Users can click the S Pen for commands to take a group photo or selfie, control presentations using the S Pen as a remote or play video automatically.
“The smartphone market, globally and in Thailand, is already saturated with a high penetration rate, but there is still a replacement market and users purchase a new phone every 24-36 months,” Mr Wichai said.
Mrs Wanna said the high-end smartphone segment (above 20,000 baht) is driven by strong purchasing power. The segment accounts for 20% of smartphones in Thailand in term of units sold but a larger share in value terms.