Samsung is reportedly all set to discontinue its Galaxy Note series next year following a sharp drop in demand for premium phones in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While rumors to that effect have been doing the rounds over the past few months, Reuters is now quoting three different sources to confirm that Samsung does not plan to release a so-called Galaxy Note 21 next year.
Instead, the company is said to be concentrating its efforts on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which is set to become the top model in the company’s phablet lineup. As part of the plan, Samsung is also reportedly looking to incorporate support for its S Pen stylus into the Galaxy S-series, which is now likely to become the sole flagship smartphone lineup from the company alongside its new-age folding smartphone models.
Talking about folding smartphones, the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 3 will also reportedly come with S Pen support as part of Samsung’s efforts to bring feature parity between its flagship lineups. Samsung refused to issue a statement to Reuters about its plans regarding the Galaxy Note 21, so it will be interesting to see if we can get an official confirmation about the supposed cancellation in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Counterpoint Research analyst, Tom Kang, has noted that sales of the Galaxy Note series are expected to fall around 20% to 8 million units this year, while sales of the S-series are likely to drop by 5 million to less than 30 million units in 2020. “Premium demand has decreased this year and many people are not looking for new products,” he asserted while offering a glimpse into Samsung’s possible reasoning for discontinuing its much-loved phablet lineup.
