Phone makers running out of headroom for innovation

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 launch highlights a phone industry problem.

After five years of stellar growth and stunning hardware improvements, phone makers are running out of headroom for further innovation.

Samsung’s Galaxy SIII is the world’s top-selling phone for a good reason. It offers the mix of features customers want in the right package. The Galaxy S4 updates a winning formula. There were no serious shortcomings to fix.

Incremental phone upgrades are less compelling

Which means the Galaxy S4 is an incremental  upgrade. It looks a lot like the Galaxy SIII. Almost all the improvements are not immediately obvious. There’s a slightly bigger screen, the camera has more pixels for a higher resolution and there's a faster processor.

All good stuff, but possibly not enough for existing SIII owners to feel a need to switch immediately to the new model.

All the headline features outlined at today’s global launch function are software applications – mainly adding functionality that could previously be purchased from app store vendors. Samsung is competing with its aftermarket.

Phone makers need a point of difference

That could be a sensible move. Today’s best smartphones have similar hardware specifications, Samsung’s bundled software might give the company an important point of difference.

However, if experience is anything to go by, much of the extra software packed in the S4 won’t get used by mainstream owners. And there is a question about whether the bundled software amounts to bloat.