Will be interesting to see how this bet plays out for Samsung.
At these prices is going squarely against the iPhone 6S Plus. It may work if former Note users but it as well as taking potential 6S customers who think there's not much change from the 6 Plus (Force Touch / 2GB RAM / CPU bump).
I don't doubt that it's a very nice phone but I'd want 64gb and £829 is just too much when I consider the other options and a plummeting resale value.
I think Moto could be in for a good one or two quarters with the Style and Play coming in at 50%+ less.
It's when you put it in perspective of other android space phones. The iPhone may be what Samsung aspires to emulate sales wise and the 'easy' comparison - but it is not Samsung's real competition. That is the plethora of other Android OEMS.
Essentially Samsung has a lovely looking phone but one that is priced at 2 x the cost of a Moto X Style or OnePlus 2 or forthcoming nexus devices etc. From a design / hardware perspective Samsung may have 'excuse the pun', 'the edge' but it doesn't have 200% of an edge.
Indeed the software enhancements the Edge gives are minimal - and of course the overall performance of Samsung hardware is never truly exploited due to the legacy bloat and unoptimised software it still carries under its hood, meaning that 200% increase in cost to the consumer is not in any way shape or form carried over into big tangible increases in end user experiences when compared to devices from other OEMs.
Likewise the forever ongoing onslaught of new Android devices from the myriad of OEM's means resale value of your very expensive device just doesn't hold. Within a few months your device is worth only 55% tops of what you paid for it. That may be ok if your talking a $400 phone, but one costing north of $800 it's a different matter.
There will always be an audience for the top end fancy android handset, but it's a shrinking one. One that is constantly threatened by a rising swell of actually excellent hardware coming out from other OEMs.
I highly suspect the Edge Plus in a mere few weeks will be forgotten about by much of the general public as Apple media and hype machines kick in - hype generated not necessarily by consumers, but by the retail stores and carriers who will all be out pushing the new iPhones big time in advertising and in stores. This leaves the very expensive S6 Edge Plus as lovely as it is in a problematic spot.
It's dramatically undercut by other OEM's coming out and getting press attention in the next couple of weeks and months. It has lost much of what drew a lot of people to Samsung devices for and 'other than its curved edges' comparing it's spec sheets to your average Joe consumer - it doesn't hold much tangible increase in either it's smaller siblings which are being offered discounted heavily on carrier contracts.
In USA and Asia I suspect the Note 5 will be more popular - even if its charms are receding at a global level (assuming lack of demand / waning sales in Europe killed the Note 5 release here) and I suspect it's (S6 Edge Plus) sales won't be stellar in those territories.
Likewise for the android consumer wanting to purchase outright it's too pricy. It's 2x cost just isn't perceivable as a 2x improved end user experience. Indeed were getting to the point where even tying yourself to a two year contract with your carrier your asked to pay out upfront as much as other flagship devices cost off contract.
Finally iPhone users Samsung desperately want to attract are unlikely to jump ship to a more expensive device at and around the same time as a new shiny iPhone launch which carriers and retail stores are going to be pushing heavily up and over the holidays.
I can not see the Edge plus doing very well. I expect next year we will see a push to the S7 being bigger, 5.5" - the 'plus' phased out - and if Note 5 sales disappoint - they have to be lower because they cut out a massive audience - a possible end to the Note line and a more concentrated focus on the S7 line..
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