If you thought Samsung's recently unveiled Galaxy S4 was the company's next big thing, you'd be sorely mistaken. No, my Foolish friend, Samsung's next big thing is the Galaxy Mega, which was made official today. The good news is that Samsung ditched the horrible "Fonblet" name it was originally considering.
Galaxy Mega 6.3. Source: Samsung.
Samsung is showing that it has no intention of slowing the pace of its product experiments. At the same time, its willingness to release every imaginable form factor has played a large part in the company's rise to the top of the global smartphone market. Thanks to its operational efficiency, it can quickly launch products, and subsequently kill them quickly if they fail to take off. The ones that sell well stick, and because Samsung had no idea what the best form factor was, it figured it'd just try them all.
Nemesis Apple (AAPL +1.05%) is the exact opposite, sticking with exactly one display size for five generations, and only increasing modestly with the latest iPhone 5. However, competitive pressures are mounting, and investors have been calling for Apple to launch an even larger iPhone to defend against Samsung's assault. They may have to wait until next year, though, before Apple responds.
If anything, Samsung's success shows that both extremes of product depth and product breadth can work, with Apple representing the former, while Samsung embodies the latter. With Samsung currently riding high on its plethora of products, maybe it will never stop.
