Samsung is Rolling Out a Smartphone Subscription Next Month (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0175851503
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/01/08/1524249/samsung-is-rolling-out-a-smartphone-subscription-next-month
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/8/24338974/samsung-galaxy-subscription-smartphones-ballie
> It looks like Samsung is finally ready to [1]roll out a paid subscription for its AI-powered smartphones, but it might not look like what we were expecting.
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> According to ETNews, Samsung Electronics vice chair Han Jong-hee has confirmed that the company's AI Subscription Club, which launched last December for some of Samsung's home appliances in South Korea, will soon roll out to both Galaxy phones and the upcoming Ballie AI robot.
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> "We will apply the subscription service to Galaxy smartphones starting next month," he says. "Ballie will be introduced first in Korea and the US, and we plan to supply it as a subscription in Korea."
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/8/24338974/samsung-galaxy-subscription-smartphones-ballie
Just NO (Score:5, Insightful)
Subscription are just NO. I am sick and tired of my life, my documents, my work being held to ransom each month.
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Do you get paid for your work monthly or in a single lump sum every couple years?
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> Do you get paid for your work monthly or in a single lump sum every couple years?
I assume that if they quite, they don't take the results of their work with them...
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Most people get paid for they work they do, when they do it, I assume if he quits he won't continue to get paid while doing no work.
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So most people would prefer to be paid while they're doing the work, like subscriptions offer, rather than just at the end like a single-use software license. Got it.
So I read the entire article and summary (Score:3)
Somehow this is even fucking dumber than I expected it to be (subscription to lease phone / services from Samsung). And as usual is less informative here on ./ than on reddit: [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/Andro... [reddit.com]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1hwmg9e/samsungs_ai_subscription_plan_for_phones_tablets/
This sounds like great news! (Score:2)
...does it mean that if I don't pay the subscription, the AI will be disabled?!
I think Samsung is about to find themselves re-learning how subscriptions only work if you charge them for things people WANT.
pay-once products, or lose market share (Score:2)
> ... [1]https://www.sammobile.com/news... [sammobile.com]
Cable Tv. doesn't talk about it but some people don't return the decoder box when the subscription ends. Samsung is jumping into those problems, feet-first. They think a new product line with a new online service, will force people into subscriptions. They should think, their competition against Google online services didn't bring them lots of fans, this will also be ignored. Most people won't want AI and won't choose a subscription, so Samsung will have to continue their non-AI, pay-once, products, or
[1] https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-ai-subscription-plan-launching-next-month-usa-korea/
What's the telco situation? (Score:2)
This proposal seems DOA in the US; not so much because people would rebel against phone subscriptions; but because phone subscriptions are, de-facto, already how a great many phones, especially the more expensive ones, are sold thanks to the "free" with 2 year contract arrangement that you'll get from any of the major carriers, who probably won't be thrilled to surrender their piece of the action to the phone OEM.
Does anyone know if the situation is markedly different in Korea, and this offering is going
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> the major carriers, who probably won't be thrilled to surrender their piece of the action to the phone OEM.
They won't like it, but since you can already use a phone you own, how are they going to know if you're making payments on it to Samsung? Let alone bar you from doing that?
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It's not that they'll try to stop someone, any more than they'll spit on your money today because you bought an iphone from the apple store; but the major carrier contract prices have those 'free' phones baked into them; and generally don't offer discounts for bringing your own device; so there just isn't much incentive to turn down the phone you are stuck paying for anyway in order to pay someone else for one.
The situation is different with at least some of the MVNOs and prepaid offerings; where you can
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I pay for unlimited service on 5 unlocked phones on Verizon for $150/mo. I don't think there are any phones baked into that price that I could be getting for 'free.'
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I have been on the iPhone Upgrade Program from Apple for almost a decade. I get a new phone ever year. It costs me about $50 a month. I do it because I work in tech, my job is extremely mobile, and having excellent voice quality, a battery I can count on, a responsive device when im navigating apps like VMware Horizon or Hudu, or whatever, can be mission critical at times, saves me from having to run back to my laptop. I give up the resale value of the phone after 2 years, which is always roughly $250 for h