Mighty Samsung

Ssmsung logo

When did I first hear the name Samsung?  I'm not really sure but I guess it would have been in the late 80s / early 90s.  In New Zealand's limited choice market they were a TV brand you bought if you couldn't afford a Japanese one.  What would you rather have - a Panasonic, a Sony or a Samsung?  At the time that was an easy call - a Sony first, then a Panasonic.  A Samsung if I couldn't get either of the other two.

How things have changed.  Some people will still try to tell you that the Japanese brands are better but I'm still waiting to see any evidence of that.   Without doing any kind of in-depth study on such things I'd say that generally the Korean brands (Samsung and LG) have the very latest technology first.   And they seem to throw in more bells and whistles at lower price points than the Japanese.  Does that hold up to scrutiny?  I have no idea but that's my perception anyway.

Curves are in

The thing is Samsung is as good as anything else in the TV market.  They are also about volume, about choice, about constantly moving the technology onwards and upwards.  They are also about innovation.  Consider the gesture control, the curved OLED display - cutting edge stuff.

Of course Samsung is so much more than TVs.  They are far and away the largest manufacturer of Android based smartphones.  No-one else even comes close.   How did they crush the opposition to grab that number one spot?  Was it good luck, good management, dirty tricks?  Well, I'd venture to say a mix of all of the above.

The rise of Samsung is a story of human aspiration to be bigger and better than everyone else.  To learn from failure and build on success.  Appreciate that absolute power of a chaebol sits with the chairman, not with a committee.  When he is dissatisfied with quality and wants to make a multi-million dollar bonfire, who's to stop him?

Have a read of this fascinating potted history of Samsung's rise to glory from a small local trading company to one of the world's industrial power houses. Well worth a read.

Samsung stories

How Samsung got big (Techcrunch)

About Samsung Electronics (Wikipedia)

All about Samsung tablets and smartphones (Digital Trends)