Re: If the S7 has SD slot, isn't that like a big slap in the face of those of us who bought S6 & Not
I guess they figured the lower then expected sales for the S6 and Note 5 were related to not having an SD card slot and replaceable battery.
And I'd think they'd be missing the mark. I think lower than expected sales stems from the shift in the market to better value, phones of equivalent performance (or close enough performance) for several hundred dollars less. As consumers are becoming more exposed to the actual cost of their phones, they start to get a bit less fast and loose. Samsung's been one of the lone holdouts, refusing to budge on their device margins.
The way I see it (!
personal opinion alert!), the mass market doesn't really concern themselves too much with expandable storage. Some use it, some don't, but a small percentage is really passionate about having it. At least here in the US, half the smartphone users right off the top couldn't care less about expandable storage (iPhone users, many picking up the 16G models no less) and of the Android users, I'd be really curious to see what percentage of those who have phones that have an SD slot actually use it. I just don't think that percentage is as high as the diehards expect it to be. It might be a hot topic here on Android Central, but we're up to our eyeballs in selection bias... we're mostly enthusiasts.
Yes, there are most definite use cases for expandable storage, but as native storage options increase and access to cloud storage becomes more pervasive, an SD card slot's importance has waned.
Now.... Samsung could very well bring back the SD card with the S7/N6... but if they do so and drop it on us with a pricing structure that's similar to the current generation, well, I think they are setting themselves up for disappointment yet again.