In this installment of our Weekly Podcast, we talk to Samsung’s Hassan Anjum about Fan Edition, the Galaxy Tab S7 FE, and much more. Tune in!
We, ourselves, can’t believe it’s already been a year since we sat down and talked to Samsung’s Director of Product Marketing on the “New Computing” division, Hassan Anjum. What better way to celebrate that anniversary, and the milestones achieved during the past year, than to sit down and have another conversation? Hassan Anjum is joining us again on this week’s episode of the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast, where our host Joshua Vergara and our own Jaime Rivera are talking Chromebooks, Galaxy Books, tablets, and everything in between, including treadmills and Peolotons, but most importantly, Fan Edition, what it is, and the brand new Galaxy Tab S7 FE. You can find the audio interview embedded for your listening pleasure, as well as a text transcript below. Joshua Vergara 00:00 Jaime, can you believe it? It has been almost an entire year since we have had our guest. You could see him right in the middle. We have had our guest on the podcast and we have him back right now. Jaime Rivera 00:11 I know I, I’m curious. This, we have somebody right now, that is the only person that I’ve known that can actually walk on a treadmill while he works. I need more secrets into that. Oh, my God, I think it’s time to catch up. Joshua Vergara 00:27 All right, we have our special guest, Hassan Anjum, Samsung’s Director of Product Marketing for “New Computing”, and if I remember correctly, the last time we had you on you were just coming into this role. So I’ll tell you what: we are so happy to have you back on the show. You definitely don’t need any introduction from me and Jaime, but you can go ahead and just let us know what have you been up to? How are things going in “New Computing”? How have you been? Hassan Anjum 00:49 First of all, Jaime, thanks for that intro. It feels like whenever I need to feel special. I’ll just come on this podcast with you guys. You know? Yeah, what have you been up to? You guys already know, we’ve been pretty busy releasing all these amazing products. It’s been a pretty interesting, challenging year, I would say, for all of us. And for us to actually meet the needs of consumers and their ever-evolving needs, it’s been pretty exciting for us. So Jaime, I actually interesting over the past year, something has changed the treadmill. I did see your video on the Peloton. It was good. It was a really good one. I think I think what you said was completely fair, I will tell you this, I bought one. Jaime Rivera 01:42 Ah, all right. All right. I am curious. But we’ve got like a full team. Actually, you do realize that this whole thing about the Peloton was actually a conversation that started with Baldwin, which is somebody who used to work with you guys. And you know, it just spun off this idea that I can’t give a recommendation on a product unless I actually try it because I didn’t recommend him to buy it. He ended up buying it he ended up loving it. And then I give it a try. And it was like crap. Oh man, it’s so good. Oh, god, this is so bad. so bad. I’m curious to hear how it’s been. And so wait, so you’re moving away from the treadmill and working? Hassan Anjum 02:22 No, I’m diversifying. Yeah, so well for me, you know, cardio is tough, you know, for people who can run people who do cycling and stuff. It’s easy, but it’s tough. That’s why I was on the treadmill when I was working because I’m distracted. And the Peloton was great because you know, the instructors have basically yelling at you and distracting you. So for me, if it’s good enough, that keeps me… Jaime Rivera 02:48 There’s one thing that I really love about those classes, and it’s the moment when it’s getting really hard and you’ve got instructors like Robin saying “yes, you can”, like that particular phrase, “yes, you can”, I think that that’s been probably one of the drivers that I’ve had for the past year. I mean, I was even gonna ask you, like, has travel back to Korea gotten back to normal anything for you. I mean, I’ve seen you guys adapt in so many ways that I’m curious to understand like, what it’s been like for you. Hassan Anjum 03:17 Yeah, well, travel hasn’t picked up yet. As you probably remember. I think the last time we saw each other live was CES. What? Last year? 2020? Yes. Yeah. So that was sort of when my child was what do you call this traditional if you will, I was on a plane every four days. But after that everything just, you know, just stopped. And I don’t think we’ve ramped up travel quite back yet. You know, what I do right now requires me to sort of be in person with different teams, as you said in Korea, Korea multiple times a year nationally, I’m all over the place but we’ve adapted quite well. And you know, being able to bring products and solutions to market with such a different style of working was a huge undertaking for us. So it was actually pretty exciting too. Joshua Vergara 04:13 We all need to catch up like in person, but you know, maybe in Korea as well, like who knows? Hassan Anjum 04:19 Maybe next, next CES. Jaime Rivera 04:23 Keep giving him ideas, Josh, please. Thank you. Alright, so Hassan, here’s the thing, it’s not all the time that we get the opportunity to have somebody of your caliber, I mean, it just is like you get the chance to be at these Unpacked events, you get the chance to be able to like, plan, all these products be a part of that narrative. And for us, it’s like a real treat to have you on the show, mainly because of that because of the insight that you provide. But I mean, it’s I mean, it’s 2020 2021 has been a crazy time, to say the least. And I don’t know I keep noticing that Samsung continues to reinvent itself. I mean, we go through this pandemic, I mean, the economy gets hit. And, you know, I think that Samsung is one of the only companies that are currently like in touch with the reality that people are dealing with. Because I’m noticing that, you know, every single one of the products that I’ve reviewed from you guys this year, has been probably like, I remember I did a review on the Galaxy Book Pro 360, and it was the best value like it started with the concept, like, what is the best computer that people can buy right now? And, you know, it ended up being the best value. And then, you know, we get devices like the Chromebook 2, which brought all the essentials of the Galaxy Chromebook, but then you guys drop the price in half, if not more, you know, we get other products like, you know, the Go-series, and I’m just, I’m curious as to, you know, what has been this process, just mind sharing, you know, what the thought process has been? Because I feel that other companies are out of touch. Like I’ve seen other companies just iterate on what they have, make even products more expensive. And that’s not necessarily what the market needs right now. Hassan Anjum 06:14 Yeah, no, that’s a good question. I mean, you know, Chromebook 2 was quite an exciting addition, speaking of CES right after, you know, year after that, we introduced the Chromebook 2, and now you guys are really excited about it, especially the Fiesta Red. Actually, I’ll give you an interesting yeah. Yeah, I’ll give you an interesting fact, at one point 90% of people who are buying the, you know, the Chromebook 2, were actually buying the Fiesta Red model versus the traditional gray color. And it’s actually interesting because that’s a, you know, not a traditional color, you would think, in a, you know, laptop, if you will, but people were buying 90%. And that’s, you know, that was a huge, huge thing for us. So, and I think for us, to set the stage, that device continued to cement the fact that we’ve not only been agile to your point but also the fact that we haven’t been afraid to reinvent categories, including beyond just Chromebooks and Windows PCs. Right. So to answer your question for me, giving you behind the scenes, if you will, there are three big notions at Samsung, frankly, the first one is, one size does not fit all. And that notion is interesting because it really dictates how we move or navigate the landscape. So consumers are different partners are different. So providing limited options isn’t really an option. If that makes sense. I would say the number two is leaning into the best of our world. If you think about it, Samsung really is passionate and plays in multiple categories, you know, from TVs to wearables to refrigerators, to smartphones, with 5G. So bringing those learnings and strengths shifting to different bringing and shifting them to different categories is really allowed us to reinvent what I would call traditionally stable categories. And then lastly, which I think is the most important one is one of the most important ways these all three are equal, really, but we don’t really cross the finish line along you don’t mean like we’ll work with, we’re super close with partners, whether it’s operating system partners, channel partners, carrier partners, and frankly, the list goes on. Right? There’s a saying “if you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go farther, go together”, points one and two really keep us going fast, and point three is all of that togetherness. Jaime Rivera 08:47 Interesting, and how have you seen the reaction from consumers? Because I, again, I guess I was not expecting this, like, you know, from the products that we reviewed in 2020, which was always you know, we had, you know, Samsung pushing innovation, the most Vanguard products, these are the most capable ones, these do things that other products just don’t do. And you know, there was a price to match. And then I just see this, like complete turnaround where those products are still available for people that want them. But then you just meet people at the price tag plus the added perks. Like, you know, can you tell me a little more about that journey? Hassan Anjum 09:25 Yeah, you know, what has been really interesting about this past year is consumers not only have sort of elevated experiences, or demand elevated experiences, but also you know, want price points if there’s price sensitivity, obviously at this time as well. So, what we’ve been doing to the notion number one is this idea of one size does not fit all and the reaction has been just phenomenal. So you see enthusiast saying we want the best we’re okay with, you know, the high price points or whatnot, if you will just give it to us, we’ll take it up. The next piece is the people who want a Samsung brand, if you will, and want the things that make Samsung really special, but maybe have a little bit of sensitivity on the price and looking for more of the value. But the interesting thing is, is our compromises to your point earlier to the Chromebook 2 hasn’t been drastic, where people are like, “Oh, my goodness, I’m giving up so much”. And it’s been phenomenal. But then the reactions, when we look at social sentiments, when we look at behind the scenes, when we look at owner insights, insights are basically studies that we look at the reactions to our products. The big theme is Thank you, we’re happy, we’re satisfied. And for us, that is sort of the indicator of success. Joshua Vergara 10:49 So of going from computing, of course, we have a lot of mobile products, a lot of accessories as well. By the way, just one quick call back. Since we’re calling back to the last time we spoke, I did save more of the red like in the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 would be amazing to see and more products. And there you go. That’s great to hear that actually is like 90%, is what you said, like, that’s pretty amazing. I’m really, I’m really happy to see that! I would rock a red product like that as well. But across… Hassan Anjum 11:18…you just need to start giving us more ideas. Start writing them down. Joshua Vergara 11:26 Will definitely do. I mean, we’re recording this. So yeah, it’s all documented. So across all of those different products, we, of course, have another category, and that’s going to be tablets. So of course, that’s part of the focus of what we’re talking about today. I actually view Samsung as one of the last like real vanguards, knights in shining armor, if you will, actually putting a lot of attention to detail into the tablet category. And even at different price points, which we’ll get to a little bit later. I mean, the last time we spoke, I mean I was I’m still using the Galaxy Tab S7+ here, complete with the keyboard with the trackpad, all of that stuff. And I’m actually using it right now, during this call. So like this is great. But have you noticed, especially since the last time we spoke any changes in behavior specifically in the tablet space? Hassan Anjum 12:14 Yeah, that’s a really good point. For us, you know, I go back to the original theme that what I mentioned earlier, you know, when we look at how the consumer behavior changed for computing devices, it was people were wanting to buy purchase drivers or they intend to purchase was on top. Traditionally, it’s not really, it’s kind of a kind of like what would say number four, number five in the past years. But because of the current climate, people were wanting to buy computing devices more than what you would think for any other category. And that was actually surprising for us. Well, not too surprising. But we understood that. I mean, the drastic leap it took to get to number one was interesting. So what happened was, and I go back to this is the expectations changed. For us, when we looked at tablets, for example, large screens became a huge theme. So you see people saying, hey, if I’m going to upgrade my tablet, or if I’m going to buy a tablet, or we call new to the category, or I’m going to switch a large screen or screen size is really important. That’s really interesting. Because when you compare tablets, or what I call detachables, to other computing categories, the unique aspect is when you look at the consumer journey, screen size is the big one. So people will actually when they started, sort of picking the hierarchy of what things they were looking for consumers if you will, it is screen size that really elevates up. So in other words, in other categories, they may be some sort of compromise on screen size, it has a higher processor or particular screen size, but tablets have less of a compromise on it. Does that make sense? Yeah, for us, you know, large screens have been and will be a focus for the next couple of years. Joshua Vergara 14:07 Yeah, cuz I mean, just speaking personally here, I mean, we are techies, we are all very into all of these products. And of course, we’re going to look for specific specs and details and stuff like that. But leading up to my time with this tablet S7+, I wouldn’t really call myself a tablet person. It wasn’t necessarily a, I might be that user you were just talking about which is new to the category because it’s just not an everyday product up until this came onto my lap, almost quite literally. And I started using it as a productivity device, writing up scripts and watching stuff on the beautiful screen and you’re right like the larger screen, perhaps with the year that we have had it become a lot more important to me. So now I’m looking at this and I’m thinking this is one of the best tablets I’ve ever used. Especially coming from someone who might not have even used tablets so often to begin. Jaime Rivera 14:55 I love tablets. For me, tablets have been more of companion devices, and there are very few, and we’re gonna actually gonna discuss that because there are very few companies that have actually figured out what to do with a tablet-like how to actually take advantage of a tablet. I’m actually curious about the whole transition of like, right, right now, for example, we’re going into the transition into 5G. And if there is a device where you actually want 5G is in a large form factor like this is just that I want to have, you know, if the promise of 5G is, you know, fully connected, everything, I actually want it in a tablet, I want it in something that’s portable, that’s practical. I mean, Samsung was pretty much first that with 5G on phones, almost pretty much ahead of even the carriers, like I remember carrying the S10 5G and we were still struggling to get carriers to, to move up to it. And you know, now it’s become like, sort of a norm in that department. But I’m, I’m curious about the concept of computing? Like, how would you feel that the 5G connectivity, plus larger screens and that frenzy that’s coming? Like, how do you feel that it’s going to transform that space? Hassan Anjum 16:19 Yeah, no, that’s a good one. It’s actually it’s, it’s really exciting. For me personally, when you look at every generation of broadband cellular networks, as it gets settled in categories, technically, or evolve, you know, I think, to your point screens get crisper, larger. So I’m with you on that one, where screens, are gonna get, frankly, more immersive, frankly, because of that throughput. And, you know, it’s, there’s a combination of connectivity, and also large screens at the same time. But, you know, on the point of connectivity, it’s getting even more and more important on computing devices. Like when we look at our tablets series 40%, and this goes back to the conversation about tablets versus laptops,40% of consumers who bought the tablet series, were actually looking, we’re actually looking for a traditional laptop. So 40% didn’t necessarily replace it to your point, you know, about complementary and all that they didn’t necessarily replace the device. But 40% and 40% is huge. But here’s the interesting part. When you look at the Tab S connected users, these are folks who were buying the connected devices 50%, were actually looking for a laptop. So yeah, and that’s really true. So this connected initiative is something that we’ve we’re pretty passionate about, and we are going to build on it. So expanding connected models, bringing 5G into broader devices, larger immersive screens. You know, one interesting thing I was just thinking about, you know, Josh, to your earlier point, and I think you’ll love this one is for all the people who bought the previous tablet series, about over 60% of them were actually in the market or would consider a larger screen to 60% we’re actually thinking of potentially a larger screen than what they ended up buying. Jaime Rivera 18:22 I’m actually gonna throw you a curveball right here.
