Update: A new claimed leak puts another nail in the coffin of the Samsung Galaxy Note. However, it is set to live on in the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

It is highly unlikely that a Galaxy Note model will appear this year. This is not mere speculation. Samsung itself poured cold water on the Galaxy Note 21's prospects last week, with mobile division boss Koh Dong Jin telling Bloomberg that there may not be a new Note in 2021 due to a global chip shortage.

If that's why Samsung won't release a new Note, I'm fine with that. But it would be just as well for the company to announce that we have seen the last of the Galaxy Note this year and beyond.

Please don't judge me as a wild Galaxy Note hater. It has been a great phone for many years and set the standard for phablets that other phone makers have tried to follow. But its days as the clear and recognizable leader of Samsung's cell phone lineup are over.

When the first Galaxy Note debuted 10 years ago this fall, it was derided as an unwieldy behemoth by rivals and not a few tech media outlets. Yet people still bought it. The Galaxy Note may have been the first large-screen phone, but it certainly popularized the concept. These days, it is hard to find a phone with a screen smaller than 6 inches, mostly as a result of the Galaxy Note's popularity.

But this last sentence goes both ways. There are so many large-screen phones available today that the Galaxy Note is just one of many and no longer stands out; the 6.8-inch Galaxy S21 Ultra offers about the same area of display as the 6.9-inch Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. And if you have the extra cash, you can go even bigger with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 2.

Put another way, all phones in Samsung's Galaxy S21 lineup are 6.2 inches or larger. Samsung's just announced mid-range Galaxy A72 is the same size as the Galaxy Note 20. There is nothing special about the Galaxy Note's screen size anymore.

Still, the Note can claim a special feature in the form of the S Pen, which is bundled with all models; the S Pen is no ordinary stylus, but has Bluetooth connectivity for remote control. It is also useful for jotting down notes and for precision photo editing.

However, the S Pen is no longer exclusive to Samsung phablets as it is linked to the Galaxy Note; the Galaxy S21 Ultra added support this year and requires the purchase of a separate case to house the stylus, as does the Galaxy Note It is easy to imagine future Galaxy S models including a slot for the S Pen, as the Galaxy Note does. The next Galaxy Z Fold 3 is also rumored to add S Pen support, and I would not be surprised if other models join the S Pen family in the future. If the S Pen is not something that will be added to the Galaxy Note, then what is the phone's raison d'etre?

Certainly not to offer groundbreaking features. The recent Note is simply a camera feature that Samsung introduced early with that year's Galaxy S model. The processor powering the Note is generally the same as the one debuted in the Galaxy S.

If you're looking for recent innovations, you're probably looking at Samsung's foldable efforts, whether it's the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 2. These devices have the extra screen space that productivity-conscious users demand, and features like Samsung's Flex Mode take advantage of the foldable screen design to split the display between the viewing area and dedicated controls. Until now, the biggest accusations against foldable phones have been durability and price, but Samsung is rumored to be considering increasing the former while lowering the latter (or at least not making foldable phones ridiculously expensive).

From a business perspective, there is an argument that Samsung needs to release a showpiece phone later in the year, not only to help the year-end sales season, but also to avoid ceding the spotlight to Apple and its annual iPhone revamp in the fall. But Samsung has an easy way to address that. A schedule leaked this week showing rumored product releases over the next six months, indicating that Samsung has to highlight the lower-priced Galaxy S21 FE in August; we also have Samsung reportedly working on those foldable phone updates could be seen. We may also see updates to those foldable phones Samsung is reportedly working on.

The Galaxy Note has been going strong for a long time, but is no longer unique on the smartphone scene as its key features have been adopted and parodied by other devices. Samsung would do well to retire its product name in style and turn its attention to the next big thing, now that the last big thing is already reflected in other phones.