Samsung is Obsessed with Being the World's First

"Samsung Electronics, the world third largest handset maker only behind Nokia and Motorola, pursues a high price policy for sleek multifunctional cell phones rather than mass production and sales. Accordingly, its product lineup is 3 or 4 times larger than the rivals.


To some extent, the strategy serves as the foundation of profit making by attracting early adopters and those who prefer being different from others. On the other hand, ‘the world first’ image plays an important role in the light of the nature of Samsung’s business as the image helped the company survive in the Korean market characterized by high demand for multifunctional handsets. However, its obsession with the image sometimes provoked criticism from the market.



Samsung’s zeal for being the first to launch a 3-megapixel phone is a case in point. Korea’s all top three handset makers announced the launch of a 3-megapixel phone this month. Earlier this month, LG Electronics was believed to become the first to release a new product. But, Samsung suddenly cut in front of LG, as if it was to get even with LG which had hurt Samsung in 2-megapixel phones. Pantech&Curitel publicized the development of a 3-megapixel camera phone module and LG announced the launch of a 3-megapixel phone last Sunday.



The game was over only when Samsung and LG released Korea’s first 3-megapixel phone simultaneously on Monday. The world first 3-megapixel phone was launched by Casio last May. This time, Samsung underscores the 3x zoom lens, a function of stand-alone cameras that the company claims to be the first to apply to its handsets. That is the typical way of Samsung.



It even more fussed last year when the 1-megapixel phone first appeared in the Korean market. Samsung’s excessive marketing efforts caused a stir in the market in October 2003, when all the attention was focused on who would be the first to launch a 1-megapixel camera phone.



Stunned by the information that Pantech&Curitel would bring out the first megapixel phone in a few days, Samsung distributed a press release announcing its launch of the first 1.3megapixel phone in Korea. Pantech&Curitel attacked Samsung for deliberately disturbing its marketing campaign by circulating false information on the ground that Samsung’s camcorder phone had yet to complete quality test by mobile operator and field test while its products had already completed all the required process.



Samsung later admitted that the press release was inaccurate, however its attempt to put a damper on the market worked anyway. A few days after the extraordinary effort that Samsung made, Casio announced the release of A5403CA, the world first 2-megapixel camera phone. With all the desperate attempts, the nation’s handset giant looked more pathetic than ever." Full story @ Telecoms Korea