Samsung if you are listening I have a few words of advice for you based on my recent experience.
Personally I feel you as a company are going down the wrong path by blindly following apple. I have been a long time Samsung user and have always chosen the brand as it offered a premium experience, much like Apple, with the key difference being you offered me choice as a consumer.
I currently own a note 9 and that phone was a 0 compromise phone which offered me everything I could want in a phone back then. A stylus, a headphone jack, an sd card slot, cameras that actually took great photos heck even a charger. Remember those?
But I recently purchased an S21U and besides quality issues with the camera, it felt pretty much like a downgrade to me. You've taken away all the choice you once offered me as a consumer, blindly following the likes of Apple by removing the headphone jack then the sd card slot and the charger from the box. In doing so you have made yourself undifferentiated from other companies. You want to charge me £1300 for an S21U but after making me compromise on the things mentioned above. To to add insult to injury you give me a phone with an exynos chip with cameras that underperforms vs what my peers get in the US. Why then should one buy a Samsung vs a one plus or a xiaomi? The mi11 offers an almost similar experience to your S21U for nearly half the price. So what am I, as a consumer, paying you more for? Your marketing campaigns? I don't see any differentiation anymore in your products vs a budget brand. In fact the experience I had was so bad I sent the S21U back.
In blindly copying apple I am sure you have made a ton of profit saving on parts and I'm sure you laugh at us suckers on your way to the bank. But what you forget is that apple have an ecosystem in place that keeps people tethered to the brand while you don't. So jokes on you. There are only so many compromises one can make before the value proposition starts to pinch. Keep this up and you are going to lose in the long run, you will be the next Nokia. You used to be the anti apple, an alternative for people who didn't want to buy apple now you're a joke. You poke fun at Apple then copy them blindly.. Haha
People like me who do not see a difference in your products vs products from a brand like Xiaomi have already started to make a switch in our households. I have stopped using Samsung pay, Samsung notes and other similar Samsung services in order to make it easier for me to make the switch in a few months time. You do realise that with android phones switching is much easier thanks to Google? This switch will also extend to my wife my parents and anyone else who asks me for a recommendation. You have made it incredibly hard to recommend a Samsung phone today. Previously I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Samsung because I knew your phones were the best, 0 compromise and worth the extra money. But that isn't the case anymore.
My advice to you is to be different, be the innovative pioneering brand that we have come to know. Embrace your differentness rather than blindly copying apple. Offer me choice again. I wouldn't mind paying £1300 for your flagship if it gave me choice again. Bring back the headphone jack, sd card and ship your phones with a charger. If not, I am sure me and several other loyal customers have no real reason to pay you for what we can get elsewhere for half the price. I am sure I cant be the only one feeling this way and many here echo this sentiment.
