Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 FE smartphone, Watch FE LTE and Tab S10 Plus & Ultra tablets on September 26 at an event in New York City. The overarching theme of the event was “Galaxy for All” – a nod to Samsung’s strategy of bringing Galaxy AI capabilities to a broad set of users, across device generations and form factors.

As part of the event, Counterpoint interviewed Drew Blackard, Vice President of Mobile Product Management for Samsung Electronics America.

Key takeaways:

• Drew highlights Samsung’s Galaxy AI strategy, which aims to bring AI to as many users as possible – including on existing devices.

• AI features will be tailored to the form factor of the device they are on (health tracking on wearables, for example) and the connection between devices and apps will be the key to gaining traction.

• Things have moved fast in AI and will continue to do so. Samsung will adapt and adjust its strategy accordingly.

The interview was edited for clarity.

Line up of Galaxy S24 FE color options. Image source: Counterpoint Research

Counterpoint:

Drew, could you start out by talking about what you presented today and how it all fits into the overall Samsung ecosystem strategy? Also considering where we came from January 2024 to today, in terms of Galaxy AI roll-out and the speed at which all things AI has developed.

Drew Blackard:

I think, to me, today represented probably a couple of big themes at the same time. One was, of course, from the AI perspective and Galaxy AI perspective. Even the theme of the event, “AI for all,” is that we are very much focused on – delivering the Galaxy AI experience to as many users as possible on the variety of categories and form factors that we have at Samsung. We were excited about the fact that today we could talk about three different categories and making Galaxy AI not only available in these categories but extending it to different price points, like the Watch FE LTE, our first network connected watch in the entry level.

The S24 FE is very much about making Galaxy AI more accessible to more portions of users. Beyond Galaxy AI, they are all incredible products that show off the range of categories and price points that Samsung supports. Of course, on the tablet side, they’re (Tab S10 Plus & Ultra) our most premium tablets.

To me, that's pretty powerful – that consumers have the choice with Samsung. To go from the most entry-level price point all the way up to the most premium price point and from an experienced perspective, of course, a user is going to have the choice of how and what they want to pay to upgrade for screen size, battery life, and much more. But, when it comes to the experience and the services, we're not trying to artificially tier things. We're really trying to provide a consistent experience.

The reason we want to provide that consistent experience is because we have TVs and appliances and SmartThings, and to be able to pull that all together for the user is much more valuable than maybe isolating some of the coolest features to the most premium devices.

Samsung's VP of Mobile Product Management, Drew Blackard (right) and Counterpoint Research Sr. Analyst Gerrit Schneemann (left) at the "Galaxy for All" launch event.

Counterpoint:

Has that philosophy or that strategy changed at all from the beginning of the year to now? Or has this year essentially shown that you are on the right track in terms of your strategy and users are actually behaving in expected ways and therefore, is it the right path going towards?

You showed some of the insights into the AI usage on Galaxy devices, including the fact that Interpreter mode between Spanish and English is one of the most used AI features in the US so far on enabled Galaxy devices.

Drew Blackard:

It is an interesting question. The way I would answer it is, generally speaking, even before this year, our philosophy is trying to expand software features to older generation devices so long as the hardware is capable of doing so. That has been the philosophy that went into the year.

I think with Galaxy AI, the speed and pace of development of AI, there was some uncertainty around – could we continue that strategy? Because the use cases and features or applications are evolving so quickly and what can actually work on some of these devices? When we launched Galaxy AI on the S24, for example, we knew those devices could support the full suite of features.

While we did not announce anything during the S24 launch, we went back and did all the work and all the testing, and by-and-large were able to roll out many or all of the features to the legacy S series. The S23 FE was the only device that did not receive a few of the features, like instant slow-mo and the generative wallpaper as the processors could not support them.

Once we got past that capability question and understood that we can make sure we provide excellent user experience, we were then able to go full steam ahead and lean into it. In the April time frame, we rolled out all S24 features and then of course with the Flip and Fold 6, we announced new features like Sketch to Image.

We have definitely been trying to get Galaxy AI into as many users’ hands as possible, because we think ultimately, this way they will be able to take advantage of the full ecosystem of Galaxy experiences that we have.

Counterpoint:

I think that is a great way to engage the existing user base globally and get them to experience Galaxy AI and then broaden the relationship.

How do you think about the kind of partnership TCL announced with Microsoft? To bring GenAI features to super mid-range devices? But more broadly, how do you see that dynamic between on-device and cloud AI? Especially if we are talking about features that are going to older devices. How do you see that kind of dynamic?

Drew Blackard:

I think it starts with the use case. There are certain examples, like live translate, where we want to do that on device. The reason for that one is just performance. The latency of going to a network and coming back is not going to work well. Then secondly, for privacy, you do not want your phone conversation going to a cloud and back.

Depending on how use cases evolve over time, we have to determine what hardware capability is required to support backwards compatibility of some of these features. Other features are going to scale better by way of the cloud infrastructure, like imaging. We think about it as use-case-driven, including potential partnerships.

We believe Samsung is leading in some of the current use cases, like live translations and health tracking. We have the full ecosystem of devices and the ability to leverage the data that users are able to collect and gain insights from it. In other cases, Google is leading the way, and we are partnering with them to deliver solutions, like generative imaging.

Counterpoint:

It sounds like Samsung is trying to bring all of these AI features across devices, like the new Galaxy 24FE, the Tab S10 tablets and Watch FE LTE. Is there going to be tension coming down the road in terms of user expectation, between users of a $1,200 tablet, a Watch FE and smartphones of various price points? How do you manage that dynamic?

Drew Blackard:

It is an interesting area. Less because of the differentiation aspect (between devices) and more because of the evolution of the use cases and technology. To predict what the key use cases will be in six months, or a year, or two years is very difficult. With the S24 launch, we know what the use cases are today, and we know what we can support, including backwards compatibility.

Even though there is a lot of excitement around Galaxy AI and AI use cases, consumers are still approaching purchases from the overall value proposition of the product. While AI is a purchase driver there, things like battery life, screen size, screen quality, and camera quality end up being real purchase drivers.

From a portfolio perspective, our philosophy has always been to service every price point in the market – from the most entry price points to the most premium price points and everything in between. Providing a natural step-up logic so people can make those trade-off decisions that fit best.

Counterpoint:

A hard one to answer or to predict – What do you think the killer AI app is going to be?

Drew Blackard:

I can share some perspective on what we have seen thus far. One of our interesting findings is the difference between devices. For example, among devices with our S Pen – the S24 Ultra and even Fold – there's a strong over-indexing on Sketch to Image, which makes sense. But then Fold users also over-index with the interpreter capabilities and the dual screen capabilities.

Because of the diversity of use cases we are providing, focused on communication, productivity, creativity and wellness, preferences tend to be more audience based. I do not think there is necessarily a killer use case. For someone who is into health and fitness, clearly the health and wellness AI features are most attractive.

Productivity over indexes on Fold, because that is the type of user trying to get more done faster, so features that are helping save steps are popular. S series users tend to be a lot more focused on the photo editing capability and things like that.

These differences, to me, have been the most interesting realizations since we launched with a broad feature set – comparing and contrasting popular features across devices and not just looking at device usage in a silo. To find people who are actually using it differently depending on who they are, the devices they have and what they are trying to achieve.

Counterpoint:

Is there an update on monetization of AI? Is there monetization coming as we approach 2025 and initial launches included the disclaimer of Galaxy AI features are to be free through 2025? We have seen different approaches already.

Drew Blackard:

That is a fair question. When the S24 series came out we had put a disclaimer like that out there, which was not to signal that we plan to charge, but more an acknowledgment that the technology is moving so fast and that we do not know what the business model will look like.

So, to your point, I think we need to look at when we need to update consumers and media on what our outlook looks like. I think over time, as things evolve, we will figure out how we evolve with what.

Counterpoint:

Last question. What role does privacy play in the overall AI messaging? Considering the focus by other OEMs put on it in relation to AI capabilities.

Drew Blackard:

I think it goes back to power managing on-device sources. Phone conversations and things like that, of course, you want to stay private. But other use cases are inevitably going to be much more power-intensive and therefore cloud based. It comes down to credible partners as well, like Google and Microsoft, alongside our own KNOX solution. And we are trying to think through it from the end user perspective – what are people going to be wanting to do on device? and then providing even the tools to manage privacy (like turning off any cloud connection in Galaxy AI settings).

Counterpoint:

Thank you for taking the time! And congratulations on the launch!