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Samsung Revamps Note 7, to be Available Only in South Korea

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Last week, South Korean tech giant, Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), officially launched the revamped Galaxy Note 7, now known as Galaxy Note Fan Edition. The company has just 400,000 devices for sale, that too only in South Korea. Rollout of the edition in other countries hasn’t yet been finalized, per media reports.

Last year, Samsung found itself in troubled waters after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.  The company had to make an embarrassing recall of its highly anticipated product following a battery issue that caused phones to combust while charging. Moreover, the arrest of the company chief, Jay Y. Lee, also created more wariness toward the brand. In Feb 2017, Lee was arrested for his alleged role in the political scandal that has rattled South Korea and led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.  

Galaxy Note Fan Edition is almost identical to Note 7. However, reportedly, it now has a slightly reduced battery capacity. Unlike Note 7, with a battery capacity of 3500 mAh, Note Fan has a battery capacity of 3200 mAh. Also, the Fan edition is reportedly priced cheaper than Galaxy Note 7, and carries a price tag of approximately $620. The Galaxy Note 7 was priced at $850.

Leaving that aside, the Note Fan edition boasts a 5.7 inch AMOLED display, 12 mega pixels camera, with internal storage of 64GB and a 4GB RAM, similar to its predecessor. It also has a microSD card slot and runs on Android 7.0 operating system. Additionally, the Note Fan edition will have a “limited Bixby functionality”, per media reports.

Analysts observe that despite all the features, people might put off buying the Fan edition as Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 with a bigger curved display than S8+ and a dual camera system arrives this August/September.

The development comes on the heels of Samsung’s announcement of a spectacular second-quarter financial guidance. The company said it expects to post profits of 13.9–14.1 trillion Korean won (a nearly 72% jump) for the April-June quarter, buoyed by the sale of memory chips as well as its S8 phone. Samsung expects sales revenues of 59–61 trillion Korean won.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters report, Samsung has said that it will invest about $18.6 billion in South Korea to “extend its lead in memory chips and next-generation displays for smartphones.” It will be allocating a chunk of this investment toward its new NAND factory in Pyeongtaek and also invest in the new semiconductor production facility in Hwaseong. The company is also looking to create about 440,000 domestic jobs by 2021.  

Samsung is one of the dominant players in the global smartphone space along with Cupertino based tech giant Apple Inc (AAPL - Free Report) . However, increasing competition from cheap Chinese manufacturers like Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi has emerged as a big concern for these two companies.

Year to date, shares of Samsung have widely outperformed the Zacks categorized Electronic products Miscellaneous Products industry. While the industry gained 12.3%, Samsung shares have surged 66.4%.

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