January 17, 2024
By Bob O'Donnell
Clearly, it’s time for a new approach.
After years of primarily talking about advancements in hardware, at this year’s first Galaxy Unpacked Event, Samsung chose to direct most of its attention to the software enhancements it’s integrated into the new S24 line of phones. Specifically, the company described a series of AI-powered capabilities it collectively calls Galaxy AI. Given all the recent focus on generative AI and the fact that most of those software enhancements are AI-driven, the decision makes complete sense.
Of course, in a declining smartphone market that’s becoming increasingly competitive for Samsung—and where hardware differentiation is getting harder to do—it’s also a practical choice that simply reflects the reality of today’s smartphone market.
The new software-first tactic also reflects the shifting needs and interests of smartphone buyers. While many used to hone in on improved hardware specs, most buyers are now more interested in the types of new experiences that the latest generation smartphones can offer. And that’s exactly what Samsung has emphasized with the S24.
The new Galaxy AI functions include multiple AI-powered features that make using its latest phones more interesting, more productive, and more fun. Given the communications-focused nature of a smartphone, many of the new features are concentrated on various types of message exchange functions including real-time language translation of phone calls and in-person conversations. For text exchanges, the new Chat Assist function can not only do language translation, but also tone adjustment to ensure that the message has the exact meaning that it’s intended to have. Collectively, this is a powerful set of capabilities that makes the long-sought idea of being able to intelligently and thoughtfully converse with most anyone across the world a reality.
Given its increasingly important role as an information retrieval device, Samsung also worked with Google to create a clever and useful new method for searching for data. Called “Circle to Search,” the feature does exactly what it says—allows you to circle, underline or otherwise highlight any text or any element in a photo, video or graphic on your phone’s screen with your finger (or a stylus) and search for more information on whatever you select. In fact, it can even use GenAI-based searches to provide more context or other background information on what you’ve highlighted. As simple as it sounds, it provides a fast, intuitive new way to think about search and is likely to be a very popular among new S24 users.
Not surprisingly, the S24 also includes a number of GenAI-powered capabilities that focus on photos and videos through software Samsung calls the ProVisual Engine. Some of them are similar to GenAI-powered image editing and creation features we’ve seen from other vendors (notably Google’s Pixel line of phones). The ability to select an object (or person), move it around, remove it, independently alter it and other similar capabilities adds a whole new level of functionality and refinement to the picture- and video-taking process. Other new features build on existing Samsung capabilities, such as improved low-light capture in their Nightography mode, enhanced software-based image stabilization, improved optical zoom and more. Plus, even though not all of these capabilities are new to the market, many are new to the huge audience of Samsung buyers. In addition, as with many advanced capabilities, the devil is in the details of how they’re implemented. Samsung has done a great deal of work to make the process of using these advanced Galaxy AI features as easy and as intuitive as possible.
Just because Samsung primarily discussed its software enhancements didn’t mean new hardware wasn’t included in its S24 line. Most notably, the new smartphones are among the first to incorporate Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, which offers faster compute and graphics performance, along with a greatly improved NPU for speeding up the host of Galaxy AI-powered software features. In fact, as with the last few iterations, Samsung is getting an enhanced version of the Qualcomm SOC (officially called Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) with a few additional performance tweaks. The top-of-the-line S24 Ultra also is the company’s first phone to include support for the new WiFi7 standard—also powered by Qualcomm—and the first to incorporate a titanium body.
Samsung has also added some security enhancements into the S24 line, including an extension to its Knox line of security functions that it calls Knox Matrix. Leveraging password-less digital credentials, Knox Matrix uses Passkeys to allow secure access to registered websites and apps across trusted devices to reduce the risk of potentially harmful phishing attacks. New Enhanced Data Protection features enable end-to-end encryption of data that’s synced or backed up from your phone to the Samsung Cloud.
Finally, Samsung also made some important improvements in its sustainability initiatives with the S24 line. Most notably, the batteries on the S24 Ultra included at least 50% recycled cobalt and the speakers include 100% recycled rare earth elements—a first for any Samsung devices. The Ultra also includes 40% recycled steel in its speakers and 10% recycled pre-consumer Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) in its volume buttons.
Taken as a whole, the S24 line isn’t the typical type of Samsung upgrade we’ve seen in the past. The emphasis on the software capabilities (and questions about whether or not some of those capabilities will be made to previous generation S series phones) make this a different kind of product cycle. However, I think it’s the kind of phone evolution we can expect to see from most of the major phone vendors for the next several years. With the obvious exception of foldable screens—which Samsung also leads in via its Z series foldable line—traditional smartphones are becoming harder to distinguish from one another. As a result, the software experiences that companies can enable are likely to be primary points of differentiation for some time. For companies like Samsung who are dependent on Google’s Android OS for most of the software on their devices that could be a daunting challenge. But as Samsung has demonstrated with its new S24 line, it’s possible to do.
Here's a link to the original column: https://www.techspot.com/news/101548-samsung-galaxy-s24-upgrades-focus-software-first.html Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on LinkedIn at Bob O’Donnell or on Twitter @bobodtech. |
