Samsung aims to be no.1 in laptops – we talk to the top men in Seoul
We visited South Korea to see where our 'Ultimate' laptop was born and find to out what's coming next from a bullish Samsung
6. SAMSUNG’S GRAND PLAN – WE TALK TO THE BIG BOSS
The big boss for PCs at Samsung, Seongwoo Nam (Executive Vice President of IT Solutions) talked to us about Samsung’s laptop strategy. He said that Samsung weren’t in the laptop business just so it could sell more Samsung-made semi-conductors, though he admitted that its position in making such components put it a uniquely-strong position.
Nam admitted that with its netbook business, Samsung had started out as “a volume player”, but now wanted to move to being, “a premium player like Apple or Sony.” He sees Microsoft and Windows 8 as a great opportunity and said “Microsoft and Intel are also important value adders to me”, so though Samsung may be bullish about its goals, it’s not yet looking to move away from partnering with the big supporting guns in the laptop market. He went on to say that,”With Windows 8 and the strategic importance of the cloud and apps, Samsung is well placed to take advantage over competition.”
One of three gigantic Samsung building in downtown Seoul, in addition there’s a 30,000 person campus -Samsung Digital City – in nearby Suwon
However he also claimed that Samsung wasn’t selling laptops to make big profits, as apparently the margins on such devices are very small. Talking at length about Samsung’s desire to grow the business side of PC and IT business, we couldn’t help but feel that the consumer market may just be a stepping stone to more lucrative corporate supply and support contracts. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean Samsung will lose its focus on the consumer market, but it’s far too early to tell.
For now, Samsung’s long-term planning and heavy investment in R&D look to be paying dividends at this critical time in the PC business. It’s making some gorgeous-looking and highly desirable products, with its TVs, smartphones and laptops all gaining our praise in recent months. Having spoken to some of its top executives, we get the feeling that it’s trying to do things better than everyone else: TVs better than Sony, laptops and smartphones better than Apple, research and software development better than IBM. That’s a laudable aim, but given recent successes it’s one that’s largely been achieved. Soon, instead of doing something better than someone else, Samsung will need to take the initiative and set the agenda itself.
On the next two pages we show you how Samsung tests it laptops in its secretive lab, and some contenders for our next Ultimate laptop