After years of playing it safe, Samsung promises to make exciting products again

Samsung hasn’t enjoyed the best financial results in the last quarter, leading to job cuts and more. Now, the company has issued an apology and promised to offer exciting products and technology.

Samsung Electronics issued an apology to shareholders, customers, and employees on its Korean-language website (spotted via Jukanlosreve on Twitter) in the wake of guidance showing disappointing financial results.

“The performance that fell short of market expectations has raised concerns about the fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company,” read an excerpt of the letter. “Many people are talking about Samsung’s crisis. All of this responsibility lies with us who are leading the business.”

However, Samsung Electronics has also pledged to focus on new technologies to improve its situation:

Above all, we will restore the fundamental competitiveness of technology. Technology and quality are our lifeblood. It is Samsung Electronics’ pride that can never be compromised. Rather than short-term solutions, we will secure fundamental competitiveness. Furthermore, I believe that only new technologies that do not exist in the world and perfect quality competitiveness are the only ways for Samsung Electronics to make a comeback.

The firm also said it would “more thoroughly” prepare for the future:

Second, we will prepare for the future more thoroughly. We will rekindle our unique passion to fearlessly pioneer the future and to cling to our goals until the end and achieve them. We will re-arm ourselves with a challenging spirit to run toward a higher goal, rather than a defensive mindset to protect what we have.

It’s worth noting that the letter was penned by Jeon Young-hyun, Samsung’s vice-chairman of its Device Solutions division. This division is responsible for memory, chipset design, and semiconductor manufacturing. Samsung’s Exynos chips and Foundry division have enjoyed a mixed reception in the flagship segment in recent years, so we’ll have to see whether this push for new technology bears fruit here.

More cutting-edge phones coming?

Time will tell whether Samsung will actually focus on new technologies in the smartphone space too. This letter comes after several years of high-end Galaxy phones that were mostly iterative releases. In fact, the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus have the same rear cameras and charging capabilities as 2022’s Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus.

The company’s foldables, in particular, have fallen behind competitors in terms of hardware, as Chinese rivals offer thinner designs, better cameras, and more. In fact, HUAWEI released the world’s first commercially available triple-screen foldable, beating Samsung and others to the punch.

We, therefore, hope this letter applies to Samsung’s smartphone division too, as we’d love to see phone and foldable hardware on par with rivals like HONOR, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and vivo.