TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Saboteurs threaten South Africa’s power supply

      20 May 2022

      Prosus to sell Russia’s Avito

      20 May 2022

      Curro pilots artificial intelligence for learning in its schools

      20 May 2022

      Dark weekend lies ahead thanks to you know who

      20 May 2022

      CSIR develops app to help kids learn to read

      20 May 2022
    • World

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Musk moves to soothe investor fears over Tesla

      20 May 2022

      Apple is almost ready to show off its mixed-reality headset

      20 May 2022

      TikTok plans big push into gaming

      19 May 2022

      Musk says he will vote Republican, calls ESG a ‘scam’

      19 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022

      Meet Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s personal ‘fixer’

      6 May 2022

      Twitter takeover was brash and fast, with Musk calling the shots

      26 April 2022
    • Podcasts

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022

      The inside scoop on OVEX’s big expansion plans

      20 April 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Editor's pick»The irony of Samsung’s dominance

    The irony of Samsung’s dominance

    Editor's pick By Steven Ambrose19 March 2013
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Steven Ambrose
    Steven Ambrose

    Let’s make a mobile operating that will rival Apple’s iOS, and let’s give it away for free. Clever thinking by Google, at the time. As of early 2013, Google’s Android operating system has come to dominate smartphones worldwide, with Samsung taking the lion’s share of this dominance. The irony is almost palpable.

    Google has done a magnificent job. Android 4.2.2 is almost every bit as good as anything else on the market (read: iOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8, and the others). Google Play is as big as the Apple App Store and as full of good-quality apps. Google services are useful, clever and cutting edge, and almost always just that little bit better on Android than on the iPhone.

    Samsung has relentlessly and single-mindedly taken over the smartphone space. In the past three years, Samsung has gone from a middle-of-the-road player with multiple operating systems under its belt to become the dominant, by some margin, Android smart device player.

    The Samsung Galaxy range has been a masterpiece of marketing and execution. They have great product names and great features and show insight into what people are looking for at almost every price level, a feat no other company has been able to replicate. The momentum and the hype overshadows the fact that there is nothing particularly unique or innovative about Samsung devices, even taking into account the new Galaxy S4.

    Don’t get me wrong, the S4 is a technical tour de force. Samsung has taken all the very latest technical bits and packed them into a slick polycarbonate case. More importantly, it’s also tricked out the Galaxy S4 with every possible software option.

    Health is trending, so let’s create a hub and throw a whole lot of software and accessories at the problem. Cameras. Boy, does Samsung do cameras, so it threw as much clever software at the S4 as possible. Overall, there are few if any competitors that can, or have done, such a comprehensive job.

    What is clear is that the tremendous success of Android, and its very openness, has allowed a clever, ambitious and very successful company to corner its market.

    All the clever software Google has come up with Samsung has essentially replicated and called it S this and S that. In fact, almost every innovation from any platform has been replicated by Samsung in one form or another. Voice? Samsung has S-Voice. Camera? Smart this and Smart that, with more options than you could ever use in one day.

    In combination with all the add-ons and hubs, for movies, music, health and other services, Samsung is clearly moving as fast as it can into the software and services space. At the recent Samsung Africa Forum in Cape Town, it was clear that despite all the new shiny gadgets, which included fridges, washing machines, and tons of other technological marvels, the underlying message was software and services. Couple these services with integration across platforms, and product lines, from TV and airconditioning to cellular, and a kind of magic ensues.

    Marketing terms such as “smart interaction”, “smart content” and “smart evolution” abounded at the Africa Forum as well as at the lavish Galaxy S4 launch in New York. Reading deeper though, these were not just examples of marketing hyperbole, but a glimpse of the future Samsung is trying to serve up.

    Imagine a universe of products, all aware of each other, all interacting and anticipating your needs, and working together in a way that would actually make your life easier. This is Samsung’s master plan. Samsung as a company is also almost unique in its ability to deliver such a future, as it controls an entire spectrum of technologies, from mobile to computer to home appliances.

    Back to Google. The runaway success of Android in the smartphone space is fast becoming Samsung’s success. As Samsung continues to grow in the mobile space, and all indications are that it will, the base operating system will become less and less important. At some point, Samsung may well decide to change the base layer for one it controls, such as its Tizen platform. Right now, Google still has the balance of power and may still have the resources and scale to outplay Samsung in the services space.

    That window is rapidly closing and we can’t forget the big gorilla in the room. Apple still has an iron grip on the mobile and tablet ecosystem, with loyal (in fact, evangelical) support from its fans that others can’t reach — not even Samsung. Couple this with a huge stockpile of clever people and lots of cash, we may still see some more disruption from the brains at Infinite Loop.

    The lesson here is that in most cases the best laid plans of Google and men often take turns that no one can anticipate. BlackBerry dominated enterprise and Nokia dominated mobile, and that was as recent as three years ago. Right now it’s an Apple and Samsung party. Who knows what’s coming up next. My sense is that whatever is coming will most probably be Chinese.

    • Steven Ambrose is MD of StrategyWorx. This piece was first published by Memeburn and is reprinted with permission
    Apple Google Samsung Samsung Electronics Steven Ambrose StrategyWorx
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleDStv launches new channel bouquet
    Next Article Telkom lifts lid on new mobile brand

    Related Posts

    Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

    20 May 2022

    Apple is almost ready to show off its mixed-reality headset

    20 May 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Fast-rising fintech Bankingly closes $11m investment round

    20 May 2022

    Creating an effective employer value proposition for the new era of work

    20 May 2022

    Why fibre is the new utility – and what it means for South Africa

    19 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.