Samsung S24 Ultra smartphone during Samsung Unveiled event in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on … [+]
Google isn’t the only company to repeatedly slash its flagship hardware, Samsung is on a similarly aggressive path when it comes to cutting the price of the Galaxy S24.
Right now, Samsung has dropped the price for higher storage options on the Galaxy S24 Plus and Ultra models. That means you can pick up the 256GB option, on both models, for the price of the 512GB device – knocking $120 off both phones.
This is along with improved trade-in values for old devices, which are up to $600 and $750 for the Plus and Ultra respectively. These are two of the many sales, discounts, vouchers and deals that Samsung is offering after the devices launch in January.
Last month, Samsung exclusively told me it was giving away the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus for free with qualifying TV purchases. It’s also included in its new Galaxy Tab S6 Lite with Galaxy S24 purchases in April.
A month earlier, the Korean company took 10% off all Galaxy S24 phones in its “7 Days” promotion, along with multiple seemingly random price cuts over the past six months and giving away a year’s free Disney Plus subscription to select Galaxy owners. All the while, Samsung is offering a 5% discount on all purchases if made through its official app.
Samsung is no stranger to aggressive marketing practices and targeted discounts to upset competitors. Back in 2015, the company ran a daring “test drive” campaign that allowed iPhone users to trade in their Apple phones for the Galaxy Note 5 for a month to see if they liked Samsung’s approach to Android. As I reported at the time, it was popular and at least convinced some iPhone users to cross the floor.
Samsung is still taking shots at its iOS arch nemesis. The test drive scheme has evolved into a “try galaxy” app that can be installed on the iPhone so that iPhone users can see what the Galaxy AI experience is like. This is a key difference between the two ecosystems, as Apple has yet to release its suite of AI tools. Samsung has just released a new video poking fun at Apple’s ill-received iPad ad – another popular pastime of the Korean firm. Old tricks die hard.
I suspect that these repeated discounts from Google and Samsung have been popular because neither company is holding back. With Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked Paris summer event in July, the company will almost certainly have more serious deals up its sleeve.
Expect to see the Galaxy Ring loosely used in bundles with the new foldable phones and the existing S24 range, along with aggressive trade-in prices for old iPhones. I wouldn’t be surprised if the price of the Galaxy S24 takes a hit at the July event, perhaps something close to the $200 discount we usually see during Black Friday sales. Pre-order prices for the new Z Fold 5 and Flip are likely to be just as generous.
All of this is happening in tandem with the massive generative deployment of AI by major technology manufacturers. There is an intense battle to assimilate as many people as possible into their respective ecosystems, as companies believe that AI-powered features can lead to paying subscribers for those same features in the future. Just look at Samsung’s warning that its Galaxy AI toolkit is only free until the end of 2025.
If AI is an inflection point in the history of technology, on par with the invention of the web, as some believe, then aggressively pricing the hardware that acts as a gateway to it makes perfect sense.
