I was already fascinated by technology when I was young and I am still enthusiastic about new gadgets and how they work. I didn’t think that my passion for technology could increase. However, 2020 taught me better, because in this special year mobile devices have once again gained in importance in everyday life. We had to reshape our lives, rethink our ways of working and become more flexible – mobile technologies often provided the necessary tools for this. The past year has encouraged me to continue to exploit the potential of this development in order to offer people personalized application options that can enrich their lives and express their individuality.
When I think about what’s to come in 2021, I feel encouraged. Samsung has created many opportunities over the past year to foster collaboration and help drive technology. So people were supported on their individual paths. We never believed in one-size-fits-all mobile technology, and we still don’t. Samsung has taken a leading role in 5G and, with the foldables, has changed the idea of what shape Galaxy smartphones can take. We are currently working on advances in 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These innovations can expand the scope of mobile possibilities and give users the opportunity to adapt their smartphone experience to their lives – and not the other way around.
Our highlights of 2020
In 2020, Samsung remained true to its mission to break new ground in exciting technologies. Our vision of intelligent, networked devices for everything to do with smartphones has largely become a reality. In 2020, 5G – a technology that Samsung has done important work on for more than a decade – moved into the spotlight. After we released the first commercial 5G smartphone with the Galaxy S10 5G in 2019, we will conclude 2020 in Germany with fourteen 5G devices in the Galaxy ecosystem.
We have also seen a growing dynamic in foldable smartphones over the past year. Samsung established this category in its range in 2019 with the Galaxy Fold and expanded it in 2020 with the release of the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold2 5G. Through our long-term partnerships, we have created an open ecosystem for foldables and promoted technologies in the area of user experience. These enable us to offer a convincing user experience with further developed displays and app interactions. The Galaxy Z Fold2 5G has been hailed as a smartphone that brings different possibilities to mobile technologies – and I’m happy to say that this was just a taste of what’s to come. We look forward to further researching, developing and expanding this exciting category.
We have also made progress in our efforts to shape the world in a way that conserves resources. In partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), we advertised the 17 global goals for sustainable development on more than 80 million smartphones and mobilized the Galaxy community via our Samsung Global Goals app. We continue to work to support the transition to a circular economy over the entire life cycle of our products – for example by extending the product life, increasing the use of gentle materials in our packaging and developing environmentally friendly products and accessories.
We can look forward to these features in 2021
I’m thrilled with what Samsung achieved in 2020, but as passionate developers, we always think about what’s next. The smartphone partly becomes an extension of our personality. With so many people working on the go and often spending more time at home with entertainment, video features and quality have come to the fore on mobile devices.
From home office video calls to gaming and online dance challenges, producing, sharing and streaming videos has played a huge role over the past year. Regardless of whether users want to edit their recordings almost professionally or use lenses capable of multitasking – the recently introduced Galaxy S21 series 5G gives users different functions to meet the various requirements of video fans. In terms of progress in this area, we have an epic year ahead of us, which was duly ushered in with Samsung’s Unpacked event in January. The new Galaxy S21 series 5G and the Galaxy Buds Pro will be a great companion for an exciting year 2021 with many features and modern design.
Our development department has also expanded the AI functions on the devices of the Galaxy family: Our devices can learn from daily activities and routines in order to take inspiring pictures and videos, enable a long battery life and plenty of storage space, and adapt the appearance of the display. Samsung wants to extend these personalized capabilities to many facets of the Galaxy product portfolio, to help people be highly productive and enable them to do things that they enjoy.
And because we live in a connected world that requires devices, Samsung is committed to continuing to support open source research and collaboration. In this way, we develop functions that can be used across devices, applications and services so that many people can benefit from the possibilities of modern technology. Thanks to the open ecosystems that we have created in cooperation with leading companies, we are developing networked and open applications that should pave the way for integrated mobile use.
Through continuous cooperation with important partners, we have already been able to advance technologies such as ultra broadband (UWB) – and in the near future we would like to introduce functions that can make seamless connectivity in the car part of digital life. With the help of the new Galaxy SmartTag, it will be possible to find things that were thought to be lost – from keys to wallets to your own pet.
When introducing exciting technologies, our primary goal is and will remain to create products that people can trust because they know that we will treat their data with great care and that their personal information will be protected. Our new devices such as the Galaxy S21 5G series offer a personalized user experience with security and data protection as high priority.
The Samsung thinking
We believe that everyone should have access to the latest mobile technologies and be able to choose from a wide range of product options that offer personalized usage options. In 2021, our varied portfolio will be able to open up many opportunities to support people’s skills.
Part of our brand history is the claim to offer progressive technologies that correspond to the spirit of the times. That is why we would like to expand our foldable portfolio in 2021, among other things, in order to make this product category accessible to other users. We also continue to strive for top performance in the smartphone camera segment. With the models of the new Galaxy S21 5G series, we can look forward to smartphones with impressive camera and video capabilities at a high level. In order to further emphasize the impressive strengths of the Galaxy Note series, the use of the popular S Pen has also been extended to the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G.
Exceeding our status quo and being able to accept challenges – these are the strengths of Samsung. At Samsung, existing rules are tirelessly questioned because we know that the scope of what technology can achieve is for us only a question of our own imagination – and our imagination knows no bounds.
Many thanks to everyone who will accompany us on this journey in 2021.
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