Samsung's Camera Offensive Against Apple

According to a September 16, 2010 article in Business Week, Samsung Electronics is struggling to compete with the some of the best sellers in electronics, Apple. Samsung is known to be among the best for such items as televisions, mobile phones, computers, and home appliances. Now the company is taking an interesting turn towards a dying market, digital cameras. As stated in the article, the market is only predicted to grow at 5.4% or less over the next 4 years. Economists are questioning there timing for entering into camera sales. The author mentions that the reason Apple is so successful is because of the software they produce, not necessarily the hardware. All of their products work perfectly together, making it easy for the average on-the-go teenager or businessman.

I agree with the author in this case not only because I also believe that Apple’s software is the reason they can charge a high price and still sell more products then it’s competitors, but because the statistics show that entering into the market of digital cameras is not a smart idea. While they have created a very high-tech, and small camera, cell phones are now coming with high quality cameras attached. This makes digital cameras obsolete and an inconvenience to carry around with you. For these reasons, Samsungs edition of a camera line is not a good idea.

If I were the CEO of Samsung, there are a few things I would do in order to compete with Apple. First would be upgrading the software in all the products they put out to work with each other. One main reason Apple sells a lot of their products is because people with Mac computers usually buy iPods or iPads because they work seamlessly. This means that by selling one product, they are much more likely to sell a few. If Samsung were to allow their TV’s and computers to connect without any hassle, people who buy a Samsung computer would be more likely to buy Samsung TV’s in order to take advantage of that quality. Another thing that I would do is make a Smartphone. Phones such as the iPhone and Blackberry have sweeped the nation, and regardless of price, people seem to need the most up to date Smartphone. By manufacturing one of these, and using the same software as they used in the TVs and computers, they would guarantee themselves a successful business and would be able to compete with Apple.