At Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday, the company announced no fewer than four partnerships. There was a deal with Discord to build its gaming-focused chat app into Samsung’s game launcher; one with Under Armour to release a special edition of the Galaxy Watch Active 2; Microsoft is bundling its Android apps on the Note 10; and Samsung even invited a representative from the United Nations up onstage to promote a new development goals app that will be preinstalled on Samsung’s phones.
These partnerships set Samsung up to take on longtime rival Apple this holiday season, and even Google as the search giant looks to muscle in on high-end Android sales with the Pixel 4.
Perhaps most notably, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared in person to emphasize the importance of his company’s partnership with Samsung, which he said was aiming to “eliminate the gap between mobile devices and the PC.” Microsoft’s Your Phone app will come preinstalled on the Note 10 to let you view your phone notifications and more on Windows 10, and Samsung’s DeX software now lets you mirror your phone screen to your PC (although yes, the DeX functionality also works on the Mac).
The cynical explanation for these partnerships is that they’re short-term co-branding and marketing stunts. The Under Armour edition of the Galaxy Watch Active 2, for example, costs $30 more than the regular LTE edition of the watch (more money for Samsung), and it comes preloaded with a free six-month subscription to the MVP version of Under Armour’s MapMyRun app (more promotion for Under Armour). The watch is also the only Samsung smartwatch that will be able to connect to Under Armour’s HOVR shoes.
Then there’s Samsung’s partnership with Microsoft. Along with integrating the functionality of their devices, Microsoft said it will also stock Samsung hardware and sell it through its retail locations. We’ve already seen how Microsoft intends to display its products as part of a collection with Samsung’s in its stores. It’s cross-promotion all around, and it’s sure to help Samsung as we move into the holiday season and Apple prepares to reveal its 2019 iPhones in September.
But along with having cross-promotional benefits, the partnerships are also a symptom of the fact that even the biggest phone manufacturer in the world can’t get by on its own. Samsung’s phones are good devices, but nobody would consider buying them if the phones didn’t contain apps that people actually used on a daily basis or couldn’t connect to the other devices in their lives.
Take DeX as an example of this new approach to partnerships. Samsung’s DeX software is nothing new; it first appeared as a feature with the Galaxy S8 in 2017, and Samsung refined it with the Note 9 last year when it allowed you to plug your phone into a monitor with a simple USB-C to HDMI cable. DeX was never a particularly bad product; it just never completely delivered on its promise of turning your phone into a fully fledged desktop PC.
The difference this year is that Samsung is focused less on having your smartphone replace your PC and more on having the two of them work better together. As Nadella put it, Samsung and Microsoft are working to “eliminate the gap” between their respective devices. DeX will still allow your smartphone to plug into your monitor and work as a computer, but it can also be plugged into a PC or Mac and mirror your phone screen in a dedicated window. In other words, Samsung is taking DeX in a new direction — only now it can partner with your existing computer, rather than trying to go it alone and replace it entirely.
DeX isn’t the only instance where Samsung has been guilty of attempting to do it all by itself when it comes to consumer tech. Until now, the company’s insistence on pushing Bixby as opposed to the far more capable Google Assistant has been a big problem. Even when it let you remap the Bixby button on its previous phones, Samsung stopped short of letting people easily re-map the button to activate Google’s voice assistant. However, there are signs that Samsung’s attitude toward Bixby is shifting. Although the company ran plenty of Bixby trailers in the run-up to the show’s live stream, it didn’t mention its voice assistant once onstage during the show. With the Note 10, Samsung has also ditched the dedicated Bixby button seen on Samsung’s previous handsets (though Bixby remains accessible through a long-press of the power button).
Samsung isn’t the only company to have realized the value of partnerships. It’s not uncommon for Apple to have executives from other companies make appearances at its product announcements. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto appeared onstage during Apple’s 2016 iPhone announcement to announce that Super Mario Run would be a timed exclusive on the App Store, and we’ve also seen Nike executives appear as part of Apple’s collaboration with the company on the Nike Editions of the Apple Watch. Microsoft even appeared onstage at Apple’s iPhone keynote in 2015 to demonstrate Office.
Of all the partnerships Samsung announced yesterday, its tie-up with the UN is the one with the least obvious benefit for the company. The implications for Samsung’s customers are fairly minimal. The UN’s Global Goals app, which is designed to raise awareness and funds for the UN’s development program, will come preinstalled on the Note 10, and Samsung will also sell special edition Galaxy mobile phone accessories, with all profits used to support the global goals.
However, when you consider that Apple and Google have both spent significant portions of their recent press conferences talking up their approaches to user privacy and digital well-being, the appearance of a UN representative at Samsung’s presentation starts to make a little more sense. As the tech industry reckons with a growing “techlash” that has angered lawmakers, customers, and even their own employees, tech companies are working hard to prove that they know the value of corporate responsibility. Samsung doesn’t have the same kind of OS-level control as Apple and Google, meaning it’s less able to introduce its own digital wellness features. But a partnership with the UN is exactly the kind of thing that Samsung could use to build a similar kind of goodwill.
Yesterday’s event was almost entirely about products. It was about the launch of Samsung’s most spec-heavy phone of the year, the Note 10. It was about reminding people about its recently announced Android Tablet, the Tab S6, and its smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active 2. And it was about announcing its new ARM-based laptop, the Galaxy Book S.
But underlying all of these announcements was the implication that when you go with Samsung, you’re not just getting access to its hardware; you’re also buying into its entire ecosystem of apps, device partnerships, and marketing clout. These partnerships will matter the most in the coming months when Samsung will be battling Google, its Android partner, while it gradually teases more and more about the Pixel 4. Samsung also has Apple’s traditional September iPhone reveal to contend with. Faced with this stiff competition, even the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world knows that it can’t go it alone.
Comments
Ultimately you’re analzying PR…so it would be wise to filter it with a grain of salt. I think the real interesting thing is having Microsoft come promote your Windows 10 product. How common is that? I mean I guess there are no new features unique to these Sammy devices so it’s okay, it’s more for MS to get the word out and Samsung to show off their link to MS.
I can see Google doing this too, but they’re not really into that business I guess. Wonder why.
By omo on 08.08.19 12:49pm
Microsoft and Samsung are clearly under the delusion that people GAF about using their phone screen on a computer.
It’s a band-aid for trying to do Continuity (see: Apple) and not being able to even half-ass it.
By GhostMcFunky on 08.08.19 1:07pm
This post was the first reminder I had in years that Continuity is still a thing.
By Turbofrog on 08.08.19 1:58pm
You either don’t pay attention or don’t have an iPhone and Mac, then. Continuity is one of the single biggest reasons a still have a Mac. Being able to instantly and immediately pass things back and forth between devices is awesome. Being able to take a picture on my phone and within 2-3 seconds be able to paste it into a Word document is just the right amount of futuristic that it’s awesome every single time. There are many other uses for it, but it is an essential piece of the puzzle for integration of the whole ecosystem.
By hittrj01 on 08.08.19 2:40pm
I can do the same thing w/ my Surface Book and iPhone w/ OneDrive.
The real missing link on the Android side is an iMessage equivalent that also works on the the PC.
By indignantgoat on 08.08.19 3:14pm
well also as implied by the article, another missing link is the "deep OS integration". no wonder there’s no mention of Microsoft, they seem to not be able to integrate their own software into their own OS.
By mkln on 08.08.19 3:31pm
Gonna need an example. I’m not noticing anything?
By indignantgoat on 08.08.19 11:19pm
Please explain this, can you?
By Sugadevan on 08.09.19 2:13am
Messages by Google? Works for any OS and any Android. Most people moved to the web messaging, so SMS isn’t big deal anymore, maybe only in US.
By Matheus Breno on 08.09.19 9:37am
SMS is still used significantly in much of Europe. This is one of those things that dates the region in terms of when they made the leap to cellular coms. If you got on board early enough (like North America and much of Europe) inertia will still be strong for SMS, if your region got on much later, over the top communication platforms will be more common since that’s what people first encounter.
By omo on 08.09.19 10:42am
Does Samsung offer paid subscriptions/services?
By Polarbear001 on 08.08.19 12:59pm
They should spend less time with goofy partnerships that won’t last past one product (who GAF about Discord and your phone maker working together??) and more time fixing their complete dumpster fire of an OS.
Vanilla Android as of about Marshmallow was the last one that even seemed to be made to be intuitive for the user, and Samsung’s monstrosity on the Galaxy phones is laughable at best.
I’ll stick to my iPhone, thank you.
By GhostMcFunky on 08.08.19 1:09pm
This is embarrassing levels of fanboyism, man. These are just commodity, mass market devices.
Do better.
By texazzpete on 08.08.19 2:27pm
If you are an iPhone user who considers android to be a dumpster fire of an OS and Samsung phones to be a laughable monstrosity, why did you bother to comment on an article about Samsung’s business partnerships?
By nickguy69 on 08.08.19 2:38pm
Because he wants to? He finds it interesting? That’s what comments are for…
By popepe on 08.08.19 3:04pm
Firstly, I asked GhostMcFunky the question, not you. Also, "because he wants to" isn’t an answer. "Why try to smuggle a bomb onto this airplane?" "I wanted to."
This article is specifically about how Samsung is building business partnerships. His comment to the article was that Samsung makes phones that are laughable monstrosities and android is a dumpster fire. Neither of those opinions are in any way related to this article. I’m not criticizing, I simply wanted to know why he felt the need to tell us that he hates android and will stick to his iPhone. Why that was something he felt compelled to share. Stop trying to speak for other people.
By nickguy69 on 08.08.19 3:41pm
But what if "because I want to" is their answer? It seems like you’re trying to figure out if their reason is acceptable or not.
It’s probably not gonna be an acceptable one because it probably is "because I wanted to".
By GayleWind on 08.08.19 4:32pm
I’m just asking a question. I’m not trying to pass judgement like you suggest. I didn’t ask you by the way, stop trying to speak for anonymous people on the internet.
By nickguy69 on 08.08.19 5:16pm
I thought you were referring to Windows but then you mentioned Android. ugh? lol
By mkln on 08.08.19 3:32pm
Please stick with your downgrade iPhone and be happy. Almost everyone in the Android world is light years ahead now, especially Samsung with their new One UI.
By SR1 on 08.09.19 5:20am
Good move on Microsoft’s part at least. And it makes the case of an Android Powered Surface Phone Stronger. I’m sure Microsoft can do a better job of reproducing Apple’s Continuity features.
By Kyleh on 08.08.19 1:51pm
Microsoft should’ve continued developing what HP had done with Contiuum on the Elite X3 Windows Phone a few years back. That had the potential of taking on DeX and making it more interesting. If Folding phones are the future of absolute flagship status, it wouldn’t be hard to fathom that a QC 8cx or a SoC of that ilk, more powerful than an 800 series SD being the center of your setup that can be docked, connected to external peripherals and displays to the point that an Ultrabook style laptop with meager internals would be pointless to have. But this dream future of the mobile device being the center of your personal and work life hasn’t come to fruition no matter what’s been done the last several years.
By jdmp10 on 08.08.19 2:29pm
I’d rather just get an LTE device from MS (Surface Go, etc) that has telephony and comes packed with nice BlueTooth headphones.
By indignantgoat on 08.08.19 3:16pm
Samsung imo makes the best phones. I am still on a S7, had it for more than 3 years. It still get regular updates, it’s not slow yet and my battery is still fine. Before S7 i had an S3 for over 4 years only thing i had to do was change the battery once. However the bloatware on Samsung is the worst. I’ve used Samsung for 8 years total and I’ve never used any of the preinstalled Samsung apps… I wish you could at least disable them without a 3rd party software.
By Mundus6 on 08.09.19 3:32am
Smart for the best two tech companies
By Darwm on 08.09.19 8:47am