Samsung may be forcing consumers to only use official accessories with their devices

Samsung may be planning on forcing consumers to only use officially licensed Samsung products with their Samsung devices in the future, according to a recent rumor. Things like batteries, chargers, and likely S-View cases would need to be authorized with an ID chip that only Samsung would manufacture, completely cutting out most of the third-party market for those accessories. The bright side of that situation would be that we would hear less about people’s batteries exploding because they used a knock-off battery or USB cable. The extreme downside is that the price for Samsung accessories is already extremely high ($60 for a flip case with a plastic screen in it, seriously?) and lack of much third-party competition would keep those prices high.

Like the recent region SIM-locking that Samsung did with the Note 3, this is just a small step towards Samsung moving their devices and software into a proprietary ecosystem. For Samsung, it’s probably a smart business move, and I’m sure locking customers into specific accessories would be a very profitable decision. Sure, it would alienate a few customers, but for the most part, I think it would give Samsung’s flagship devices the appearance of being even more exclusive and premium than they really are. It sounds dumb, but hey, it’s worked out extremely well for Apple over the past few years.

source: ETNews

via: SamMobile