Several moves recently made by Samsung allude to a major change in the tech giant’s smartphone lineup strategy for 2021, according to various news reports on Monday.

One of the biggest changes would be a reduction of the Galaxy Note, which used to be Samsung’s flagship smartphone model along with its signature S Pen and has been released in the second half of each year for the past 10 years.

High-profile tipsters like Max Weinbach and Ice Universe, as well as smartphone-focused media outlets, have reported that there has been no information on the development of the Note 21 series, leading to speculation over the likelihood of Samsung decommissioning its phablet lineup.

Instead, some Korean sources claim that Samsung is preparing to add the S Pen to the Galaxy S21 series slated for early launch in January.

According to a news report on Sunday, Samsung has ordered digitizers for Galaxy S21, the core part of smartphone displays that enables the operation of the S Pen, from a Korean part manufacturer.

“Samsung seems to be adding S Pen to three models of Galaxy S21, while maintaining one Galaxy Note 21 model for later next year,” the report said.

Also, there are rumors that Samsung could add S Pen to one of its foldable smartphone models. 

Next year, Samsung is expected to come up with three foldable gadgets, possibly the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Z Flip 3 and Z Fold FE, according to GSM Arena. 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)