Samsung might often be in headlines when it comes to gadgets and devices, but the rest of its mobile ecosystem isn’t faring as well as it hopes. A study done by Strategy Analytics shows that while Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones are faring quite well, its users do not necessarily prefer its own apps and services.
The Korean company has dreams beyond being just a consumer electronics manufacturer. It wants to be a hardware maker, a software platform, an app and content marketplace, and a social hub. Unfortunately, even the fans and users of its Android smartphones seem to be looking elsewhere when it comes to their content and services. Using the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy S 4 as basis, Strategy Analytics revealed that users spend as little as 7 minutes a month on Samsung’s own apps and content. Interestingly, the most used of them all are S Memo and S Voice. On the other hand, these same users spend an average of 149 minutes on the likes of Google’s apps and services. Of course, Samsung doesn’t really have a counterpart to YouTube and Google Search, but 7 minutes is still a pretty low number. For a more direct comparison, these users spend around 64 minutes on Google Play Store but less than a minute on Samsung Apps and Samsung Hub.
It is no wonder, then, that Samsung is increasingly being aggressive about the services it is offering. Its Samsung Hub for music, books, and films might not have taken off like it wanted, but now it’s taking another stab with soon to be subscription-based Milk Music and, more recently, a deal with Amazon producing the Kindle for Samsung app. However, Google still holds the lion’s share of the content market and while it may be possible for Samsung to catch up, it’s is highly unlikely. Others like ChatOn, which does have a following, probably don’t have a prayer against more popular messaging services.
It’s not all bad news for Samsung, however. Strategy Analytics also emphasized that Galaxy S III and Galaxy S 4 users are ahead of the crowd when it comes to content consumption, watching 14 percent more videos and using up 24 percent more data. It just so happens that they prefer to do those elsewhere and not on Samsung’s own turf.
SOURCE: Strategy Analytics
