If This Really Is Samsung's New Phone, Next Year Is Going To Be Rough
Its profits have been tanking throughout 2014, mostly because its high-end Galaxy smartphones aren't selling as well as they used to. Its flagship Galaxy S5 phone failed to sell as well as the company thought it would.
A lot of Samsung's recent misfortunes can be tied to the rise of smaller Android phone manufacturers like Xiaomi and OnePlus. Those startups make Android phones that are just as good as Samsung's best phones but cost half as much.
Xiaomi's phones are so popular that it's now the third-largest smartphone vendor in the world and the number one vendor in China.
Samsung's challenge for next year will be to find a way to differentiate its Galaxy phones from the rest of the cheap, generic Android devices out there. That's part of the reason why Apple's iPhone sales continue to grow. The iPhone may be expensive, but it's a unique experience you can't get anywhere else.
Samsung can't say the same thing about its phones. Its hardware designs and additional software features to Android don't offer enough to justify spending an extra $300 or $400 over a Xiaomi device.
On Friday, the Android-watchers were buzzing about a new leak from Samsung on a Dutch website. Some think it's the next flagship Galaxy S6 phone. Others think its another phone called the A7.
It looks like this:
Whether its the next flagship phone from Samsung or not, we now have a peak at what at least one of Samsung's new 2015 devices will look like. (It's not a final version of the phone, and things could change, but it's probably very close to what the product will look like when it launches. It could also be a fake.)
Whatever this thing is, it doesn't look that much different than what we saw this year and the year before.
It's still mostly plastic. It probably has some metal around the edges like the new Galaxy Note 4, but it still looks like any other generic Samsung device.
If this really is a taste at what Samsung has planned for 2015, it could be another tough year for the company.
On the other hand, it's entirely possible Samsung has dreamt up some crazy-cool new software features for the new phone that'll make it stand out. It's a stretch to think that, but anything's possible.
And keep in mind, Samsung isn't totally hosed. It's a massive company that makes everything from washing machines to medical equipment. Even if its profitable mobile division is faltering, there's still plenty of opportunity to research the next big thing.
We've heard one aspect of that will be "the internet of things," which means appliances and other household stuff that you control over the internet. Plus, the smartwatch market is just getting started.
But in the near-term, Samsung needs to really wow the world with its 2015 smartphone lineup. Otherwise, it's going to be a tough 2015.