Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성전자; Hanja: 三星電子) is a South Koreanmultinational electronics company headquartered in Suwon, South Korea.[2] It is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group and has been the world's largest information technology company by revenues since 2009.[3] Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 88 countries and employs around 370,000 people.[4] For 2012 the CEO is Kwon Oh-Hyun.[5]
Samsung has long been a major manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, chips, flash memory and hard drive devices for clients such as Apple, Sony, HTC and Nokia.[6] [7]
In recent years, the company has diversified into consumer electronics.[8] It is the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smartphones fueled by the popularity of itsSamsung Galaxy line of devices.[9] The company is also a major vendor of tablet computers, particularly its Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab collection, and is generally regarded as pioneering the phablet market through the Samsung Galaxy Notefamily of devices.[10]
Samsung has been the world's largest maker of LCD panels since 2002, the world's largest television manufacturer since 2006,[11] and world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones since 2011.[12] Samsung Electronics displaced Apple Inc. as the world's largest technology company in 2011 and is a major part of the South Korean economy.
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[hide]History[edit]
1969 to 1987 - Early years[edit]
Samsung Electric Industries was established as an industry Samsung Group in 1969 in Suwon, South Korea.[13] Its early products were electronic and electrical appliances including televisions, calculators, refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines. In 1970, Samsung Group established another subsidiary, Samsung-NEC, jointly with Japan's NEC Corporation to manufacture home appliancesand audiovisual devices. In 1974, the group expanded into the semiconductor business by acquiring Korea Semiconductor, one of the first chip-making facilities in the country at the time. The acquisition of Korea Telecommunications, an electronic switching system producer, was completed at the start of the next decade in 1980.
By 1981, Samsung Electric Industries had manufactured over 10 million black-and-white televisions. In February 1983, Samsung's founder, Lee Byung-chull, made an announcement later dubbed the "Tokyo declaration", in which he declared that Samsung intended to become a DRAM (dynamic random access memory) vendor. One year later, Samsung became the third company in the world to develop a 64kb DRAM.[citation needed] In 1988, Samsung Electric Industries merged with Samsung Semiconductor & Communications to form Samsung Electronics.
1988-1995 - Consumer struggles[edit]
Samsung Electronics launched its first mobile phone in 1988, in the South Korean market.[14] Sales were initially poor and by the early 1990s Motorola held a market share of over 60 percent in the country's mobile phone market compared to just 10 percent for Samsung.[14] Samsung's mobile phone division also struggled with poor quality and inferior products until the mid-1990s and exit from the sector was a frequent topic of discussion within the company.[14]
Samsung Electronics acquired a 40 percent stake in AST Research, a United States-based personal computer maker, for US$378 million in February 1995.[15]
1995-2008 - Component manufacturing[edit]
It was decided by Lee Kun-Hee that Samsung needed to change strategy. The company shelved the production of many under-selling product lines and instead pursued a process of designing and manufacturing components and investing in new technologies for other companies. In addition, Samsung outlined a 10-year plan to shrug off its image as a "budget brand" and to challenge Sony as the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturer. It was hoped in this way Samsung would gain an understanding of how products are made and give a technological lead sometime in the future. This patient vertical integration strategy of manufacturing components has born fruit for Samsung in the late-2000s.[16]
As Samsung shifted away from consumer markets, the company devised a plan to sponsor major sporting events to remain in the public eye. One such sponsorship was for the 1998 Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan.[17]
As a chaebol, Samsung Group wielded wealth that allowed the company to invest and develop new technology rather than build products at a level which would not have a detrimental impact on Samsung's finances.[18]
Samsung had a number of technological breakthroughs particularly in the field of memory which are commonplace in most electrical products today. This includes the world's first 64Mb DRAM in 1992, 256 Mb DRAM in 1994, 1Gb DRAM in 1996.[19] In 2004, Samsung developed the world's first 8Gb NAND Memory chip and a manufacturing deal was struck with Apple in 2005. A deal to supply Apple for memory chips was sealed in 2005 and, as of October 2013, Samsung remains a key supplier of Apple components, manufacturing the A7 processors that are inside the iPhone 5s model.[20][21]
2008 to present - Consumer products[edit]
For four consecutive years, from 2000 to 2003, Samsung posted net earnings higher than five-percent; this was at a time when 16 out of the 30 top South Korean companies ceased operating in the wake of the unprecedented crisis.[22][23]
In 2005, Samsung Electronics surpassed Japanese rival, Sony, for the first time to become the world's twentieth-largest and most popular consumer brand, as measured byInterbrand.[24]
In 2007, Samsung Electronics became the world's second-largest mobile-phone maker, overtaking Motorola for the first time.[25] In 2009, Samsung achieved total revenues of US$117.4 billion, overtaking Hewlett-Packard to become the world's largest technology company measured by sales.[26]
In 2009 and 2010, the US and EU fined the company, together with eight other memory chip makers, for its part in a price-fixing scheme that occurred between 1999 and 2002. Other companies fined included Infineon Technologies, Elpida Memory and Micron Technology.[27][28][29][30][31] In December 2010, the EU granted immunity to Samsung Electronics for acting as an informant during the investigation (LG Display, AU Optronics, Chimei InnoLux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display were implicated as result of the company's intelligence).[32][33]
Despite consistent growth, Samsung, along with its chairman Lee Kun-hee, has developed a reputation for insecurity regarding its financial stability and the potential for future crises to arise. After returning from a temporary retirement period in March 2010, Kun-hee stated that "Samsung Electronics' future is not guaranteed because most of our flagship products will be obsolete in 10 years from now."[34]
Samsung has emphasized innovation in its management strategy since the early 2000s and it again highlighted innovation as part of core strategies when it announced the Vision 2020 in which the company set an ambitious goal of reaching $400 billion in annual revenues within ten years. In order to cement its leadership in the areas of memory chip and television production, the company has invested aggressively in research and development. The company has 24 research-and-development centers around the world.
In April 2011, Samsung Electronics sold its HDD commercial operations to Seagate Technology for approximately US$1.4 billion. The payment was composed of 45.2 million Seagate shares (9.6 percent of shares), worth US$687.5 million, and a cash sum for the remainder.[35]
In the first quarter of 2012, the company became the highest-selling mobile phone company when it overtook Nokia, selling 93.5 million units compared to Nokia's 82.7 million units. Samsung also became the largest smartphone vendor as a result of strong sales of itsGalaxy SII and Galaxy Note devices.[36]
In May 2013, Samsung announced that it had finally managed to test speed-enhanced fifth generation (5G) technology successfully.
In April 2013, Samsung Electronics' new entry into its Galaxy S series smartphone range, the Galaxy S4 was made available for retail. Released as the upgrade of the best-selling Galaxy S III, the S4 was sold in some international markets with the company’s Exynos processor.[37]
In July 2013, Samsung Electronics forecasted weaker than expected profits for its April to June quarter. While analysts expected around 10.1 trillion won, Samsung Electronics estimated an operating profit of ₩9.5 trillion (US$8.3 billion).[38] During the same month, Samsung acquired the media streaming device manufacturer Boxee for a reported $30 million.[39]
On August 5, 2013, invitations were received for the "Samsung Unpacked 2013 Episode 2" event on September 4, 2013 in Berlin, Germany during the annual IFA conference. While the invitation does not present any details of the event, industry figures stated that the launch of the Galaxy Note III device is expected, as Samsung used the 2012 IFA conference to launch the Galaxy Note II.[40]
Samsung’s mobile business chief Shin Jong-kyun stated to the Korea Times on September 11, 2013 that Samsung Electronics will further develop its presence in China to strengthen its market position in relation to Apple. The Samsung executive also confirmed that a 64-bit smartphone handset will be released to match the ARM-based A7 processor of Apple's iPhone 5s model that was released in September 2013.[41]
Due to smartphone sales—especially sales of lower-priced handsets in markets such as India and China—Samsung achieved record earnings in the third quarter of 2013. The operating profit for this period rose to about 10.1 trillion won (US$9.4 billion), a figure that was boosted by memory chip sales to customers such as Apple, Inc.[21]
On October 14, 2013, Samsung Electronics offers an apology for using refurbished components from cheaper desktop computers to fix higher-end products on the heels of growing criticism of the tech giant's unethical business practices as exposed Sunday by MBC TV’s current affairs magazine “2580.”[42]
