With the launch of Apple’s iPhone 6 only days away, rivals in the US and Asia have revealed their plans on how they intend to revitalise their ranges of smartphones and wearable devices in the hope of standing up to the impending Cupertino-led publicity storm.
At the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin this week, Sony and Microsoft are among the smartphone makers touting devices they say are the best yet from two companies whose mobile aspirations were being written off only two years ago.
Samsung, however, drew the first applause yesterday for the latest update of the Galaxy Note supersized mobile device, with an improved stylus alongside a new version with a flexible curved second screen, a reworked smartwatch and a mobile virtual reality headset, designed by Facebook-owned Oculus
September has become the usual month of the year when hostilities in the smartphone market resume. The cycle has come to be dictated by Apple - whose next phone is expected to be launched alongside plans for a fitness band on September 9 - although manufacturers have tried to steal some of its thunder at the Berlin event.
Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight, said that €4bn of orders will be placed at IFA, which he says is "ideally timed just ahead of the important second-half sales period and the subsequent run-up to Christmas".
Huawei, Motorola, LG and Alcatel One Touch are also at the show with new devices to help them carve out a space in an increasingly crowded smartphone market.
The pressure to have a hit product is, however, particularly intense for companies such as Samsung, whose last launch was not seen as innovative enough by some analysts. Weaker smartphone sales at the company have caused three consecutive quarters of falling earnings.
"Apple's shadow hangs over Samsung's announcements," said Ian Fogg, head of mobile analysis at IHS Technology, who highlighted the curved screen of the Galaxy Note Edge as the "more striking" of the South Korean group's new devices.
But, he said that the new products may not be enough to maintain its market share. “As Android market leader, Samsung has most to lose from stronger Apple competition.”
Microsoft, likewise, needs to prove that its acquisition of Nokia this year is just the start of a mobile success story, while Sony has made smartphones a cornerstone of a wider business strategy to return to sustainable growth.
With the Microsoft event scheduled for this morning, Sony followed Samsung's presentation with its largest launch since it bought Ericsson out from their mobile joint venture two years.
“Sony has struggled to achieve the smartphone volumes it wanted this year, so it had to deliver a strong story at IFA. Updating its entire flagship Xperia range is unprecedented and shows how committed the company is to making up ground in the cut-throat mobile devices market,” said Mr Wood.
As with Apple, Sony aims to stay clear of the fierce fighting for low margin but high volume business being targeted by smartphone makers from Asia.
Sony’s Z3 range is designed to be premium in its styling and price as the Japanese electronics group brings in technology and content from its television, audio, gaming and entertainment arms.
Significantly, for the first time, Sony is more deeply integrating its PlayStation 4 gaming platform, with the latest range being able to pick up games to play remotely over WiFi that are already under way on the console.
Sony will also offer a normal, compact and larger “phablet” versions of the Z3. The company said that battery life for the standard version would be boosted to about two days - aiming to address one of the most common complaints from smartphone users - and added features for taking “selfie” pictures and embedding words, sounds and cartoon backdrops to photos.
Much of the attention at this year’s IFA show has been on wearable technology such as smartwatches, with Samsung and Sony again among the larger groups revealing the latest versions of their ranges.
Sony’s Smartband Talk will allow phone calls to be made and taken - with a snap of the fingers - and use a low power e-ink display similar to the Kindle.
The band will log the user’s life, from how many steps they take and at what speed, to what they are listening to and how they are sleeping. Sony will also improve its smartwatch, which will go up against Samsung’s updated Gear range.
The innovations unveiled by the consumer electronics firms set a high bar for Apple to reach, but whether these new devices will be enough to compete with Apple’s launch event remains to be seen.
Financial Times
