Samsung announces two rugged smart devices—the Galaxy XCover6 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro—to support U.S. frontline and field workers.
The global mobile and tablet market has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years, with Samsung and Apple as key players. While Apple is the leader in the U.S. phone and tablet market, Samsung’s popularity has been on the rise in the past decade, placing them not far behind.
A recent Statista report revealed that Samsung’s smartphone sales in the U.S. market is at 30%, while its tablet market share in the U.S. has risen from 7.3% in the last quarter of 2012 to 18.1% in the second quarter of 2022.
Aiming to push further into the U.S. smartphone and tablet market, Samsung Electronics America has announced its latest 5G-enabled rugged Android devices—the Galaxy XCover6 Pro and the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro.
Devices to support demanding business environments
The Galaxy XCover6 Pro smartphone and Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro tablet are intended to raise workers’ productivity, especially those working in high-risk work environments and critical-mission industries. These devices are engineered to support today’s most demanding businesses with enhanced mobility, 5G connectivity, end-to-end security, ruggedness and durability.
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With ruggedness and smart connectivity at the core of both devices, Samsung claims the products are laden with capabilities that can support workers in tough environments.
“We built the Galaxy XCover6 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro with frontline and field workers in mind—including the unique challenges they face on the job,” announced Chris Balcik, vice president and head of mobile B2B at Samsung Electronics America. “With durable, water-resistant designs, replaceable batteries and 5G connectivity capabilities, these devices help frontline and field workers get the job done from anywhere there’s a connection, whether they’re on their feet, in trucks or at stores.”
With this announcement, Samsung hopes to meet the mobile technology needs of frontline workers in demanding industries such as construction, healthcare, oil and gas, and manufacturing.
The new Samsung rugged devices
Samsung announced that the Galaxy XCover6Pro is a rugged device designed mainly for enterprise and industrial use. The device comes with a display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, allowing users to operate the device with wet hands or gloves.
Furthermore, as a device designed for tough work environments, there is also an IP68 dust resistance capability and a removable battery that ensures users can always have an alternative when charging the battery becomes impossible. Although this device has debuted in other markets, it will launch in the U.S. on Oct. 22.
The second device rolled out at the launch is the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro. Samsung explained that this rugged tab has a TFT LCD screen protected by Gorilla Glass 5. Having passed the MIL-STD-compliant, a set of rigorous testing focused on environmental conditions, this device is designed to withstand immersion, humidity, altitude, salt spray, vibrations, dust and drops of up to one meter high.
Both devices share similar features, as they are built to serve similar purposes. While both devices have replaceable batteries, the tablet is built to function without a battery. It has a feature that enables it to draw power from a vehicle or kiosk if no other battery is available.
Furthermore, both devices support 5G and have programmable buttons that can serve as a shortcut for launching apps or features. At the launch, Samsung announced that both products would be available soon through Amazon Business, IT channel partners and on Samsung’s website.
Why Samsung may be joining the rugged smart mobile market
There is a growing demand for rugged mobile devices for critical and non-critical missions and work environments. Industries such as transport and logistics, retail, construction, warehousing, and military services are areas of work where rugged smartphones and tablets may have the highest usage.
A recent study on the rugged phones market size by revenue, market share, growth and trends shows that the global rugged phones market size is estimated to be worth $2.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a size of $4.8 billion by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% during the forecast period.
This could further explain why Samsung is joining a host of other global rugged smartphones and tablet manufacturers to improve the productivity of the frontline workforce across industries. Some key players in the rugged phone manufacturing market are Juniper Systems, Blackview, DOOGEE, OUKITEL, Caterpillar, AGM Mobile and Sonim Technologies.
Although Samsung has made a name for itself in the mobile technology market, the release of Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro may not guarantee its dominance in the rugged smartphones market, as there are other rugged phones littering the market. Some of the products include Kyocera DuraSport 5G, Cat S52, Cat S62 Pro, UniHertz AtomXL and Sonim XP8.