The smartphone market will go back 13 years. For Samsung, this is the ultimate weapon
The market won’t accept more
According to Counterpoint Research, global smartphone sales may decline by as much as 12% in 2026, reaching the lowest level since 2013. In this situation, manufacturers are looking for new ways to attract users, mainly by taking advantage of their competitors. In the case of Samsung and Apple, the games will be based mainly on AI.
Apple (with numerous failures along the way) is preparing its own Apple Intelligence package and a refreshed version of Siri, but Samsung emphasizes that it “started preparations earlier” and thus maintains its advantage in the mobile AI segment. The company now has not one, but more AI models that actually work and help users on a daily basis.
TM Roh, head of the mobile devices division and co-president of Samsung Electronics, emphasizes that consumers are increasingly using several AI tools at the same time. In his opinion, flexibility and diversity will be key to distinguishing Galaxy smartphones from the competition.
We are open to all solutions, because it is the choice that makes our devices attractive
The new strategy debuted on the occasion of the launch of the Galaxy S26 series. These smartphones offer a set of proprietary Galaxy AI solutions and the “Hey Plex” voice assistant based on the Perplexity engine. With the help of this technology, the user can search for contextual information, control phone functions, and plan or book services, all without touching the screen. Samsung has previously integrated Google Gemini models with the software, and subsequent updates will link the operating system even more deeply with smart tools.
New, higher smartphone prices will not facilitate growth
The fight for customers is not made easier by the constantly growing demand for HBM memory chips, which manufacturers – including Samsung itself – prefer to allocate to AI servers rather than smartphones. The prices of the Galaxy S26 series have increased significantly compared to the previous year, and in behind-the-scenes conversations with Samsung representatives it was possible to hear that the Korean company is in the middle of all this and knows certain things in advance. After Samsung, the entire market will show higher prices.
