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The Scariest Company in Tech

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Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#11

Post by lss456 »

patrickgzill wrote: post #5

This is a first post, on a dead-stock Wordpress.com installation. Why should I bother to read about your views on Samsung when: 1. you show neither data nor other facts on which to base your opinion 2. you don't disclose anything about yourself? For all I know you could be a Samsung employee trying to increase the value of his stock benefits.

I was fascinated by the out-of-box Wordpress installation. The author didn't even get rid of the "hello world" post or the tagline that says "just another wordpress blog". That's what made this article so eerie - it's a first blog post on 0% customized Wordpress blog.

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#12

Post by jdub »

There is one area in which Samsung is lacking: software. Unlike Apple or RIM, they are entirely dependent on Android. [...] That, however, could change completely if Samsung dominates the Android market like I think it will.

Want to be even more scared?

http://www.rasterman.com/index.php?page=News

:-)

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#13

Post by ashbrahma »

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-to-buy-78-billion-in-...

From link "Apple Inc. (AAPL 356.85, +2.31, +0.65%) is expected to purchase components used for its handheld devices from Samsung Electronics Co. worth about $7.8 billion this year, the Korea Economic Daily reported Monday, citing industry sources.

The paper also said that Samsung will supply Apple with liquid crystal displays, mobile application processors and NAND flash memory chips used for the U.S. company's iPhones and iPads.

If the contract pushes through, Apple will become Samsung's largest customer, the paper added."

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#14

Post by erikpukinskis »

The OP's argument rests on the notion that Samsung could somehow make phones so compelling that they take over 80% of the market. I don't think they can do that on price alone. Their price advantage over LG, HTC, etc could be what... 10%? They need more of an advantage than that to have Microsoft-level dominance.

And even though they have the price advantage over the other "premium" vendors, they are fighting a war on two fronts. The ultra cheap vendors can undercut even Samsung by doing things like using super cheap plastic, having batteries that stop working after 6 months, dead pixels, and a software team of like 2 people who just maintain a couple drivers and slap some shitty graphics and free apps on top of stock Android.

So Samsung's playground is a sizeable but bounded slice in the middle: people who don't care about having the BEST phone, and want it to be really cheap, but not cheap cheap. Cheap, but on-brand.

Microsoft had no real competition. No one else was really licensing an OS for commodity hardware. Apple, IBM, Sun et all were all selling their OS on their own hardware.

Samsung is beset on all sides by competition, and they only hold one of the Aces (supply chain).

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#15

Post by genieyclo »

I think it's interesting the author doesn't mention Bada http://www.bada.com , Samsung's new OS for mobile that's designed to be an "open" competitor to the other mobile OSes out there.

I tried signing up to be a developer about a year ago when they first announced it and I had a under-powered feature phone (Samsung Behold I), yet was discouraged by the fees and other associated things to even sign up...

After reading the Wikipedia page on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bada_%28operating_system%29#Cri... ...I'm glad I saw the light and bought an iPhone.

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#16

Post by nika »

I think it would be wise, as this article does, to not think about the phone market in terms of platforms (iOS, Android, RIM & WebOS) but in terms of manufacturers (Apple, HTC, Nokia, Samsung, etc.)

If you look at it in those terms, there are two manufacturers that are vertically integrated- Apple and Samsung.

Samsung is weak on software, and software is the critical component of this age (more important than flash, RAM or SoCs). Meanwhile, Apple is a design house, and doesn't have manufacturing capability of its own.

So, one question is whether owning your own plants will be critical or not.

Consider this possibility- it is like the Windows market, only instead of it being a licensed OS, it is Apple, and Apple devices, but HTC et. al. become contract manufacturers for Apple. The margins may not be any better than competing in the commodity phone market, but the R&D and marketing costs are a lot less, and so they may be more profitable.

I'm sure this goes against their DNA, but unless FoxConn can expand enough to cover the demand (for Apple and for everybody else) I can see the commoditization happening at the manufacturing level, rather than the device level, as it did in the PC market.

Samsung has had a decade to replicate the iPod, or to build a video game system. I don't know if they will be able to build the expertise or find the mojo that Apple has on software.

I don't think Apple is going to start building plants nor will they build expertise in lithography, etc.

But I think that while software is easy to commoditize (eg: Android) a quality software experience is much harder. Meanwhile, it is cheaper to be a contract manufacturer for a %5 margin than it is to try and compete with your own products.

So, Apple could be the new Microsoft, and Samsung could be the new Apple-- if software is what matters. The reverse could occur if lithography expertise is what ends up mattering.

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#17

Post by dman »

jdub wrote: post #12

There is one area in which Samsung is lacking: software. Unlike Apple or RIM, they are entirely dependent on Android. [...] That, however, could change completely if Samsung dominates the Android market like I think it will. Want to be even more scared? http://www.rasterman.com/index.php?page=News :-)

This cheered me up!

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#18

Post by nika »

ashbrahma wrote: post #13

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-to-buy-78-billion-in-... From link "Apple Inc. (AAPL 356.85, +2.31, +0.65%) is expected to purchase components used for its handheld devices from Samsung Electronics Co. worth about $7.8 billion this year, the Korea Economic Daily reported Monday, citing industry sources. The paper also said that Samsung will supply Apple with liquid crystal displays, mobile application processo…

Apple also reported in one of their financial calls that they spent $4.9 Billion out of the war chest to secure future supplies of components they consider critical. They didn't say which ones they were... but I think they feel the market is there for any of the others.

Re: The Scariest Company in Tech

#19

Post by joebananas »

jdub wrote: post #12

There is one area in which Samsung is lacking: software. Unlike Apple or RIM, they are entirely dependent on Android. [...] That, however, could change completely if Samsung dominates the Android market like I think it will. Want to be even more scared? http://www.rasterman.com/index.php?page=News :-)

So they will ship in 2025 with the hottest in 2010 design as their look then, if he's the lead?
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