Samsung Electronics

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Samsung Electronics (SEC, Korean: 삼성전자, KRX: 005930, KRX: 005935, LSE: SMSN, LSE: SMSD) is a multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea.[1][2] It is the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group. With assembly plants and sales networks in 65 countries across the world, Samsung has as many as 200,000 employees. [5]
In 2009, the company took the position of the world’s biggest IT maker by surpassing the previous leader Hewlett-Packard.[6] Its sales revenue in the areas of LCD and LED displays and computer chips is number one in the world.[7]
Some of the most popular items produced by Samsung include LED-backlit LCD TVs and Galaxy S mobile phones.
In the TV segment, Samsung’s market position is dominant. For the four years since 2006, the company has been in the top spot in terms of the number of TVs sold, which is expected to continue in 2010 and beyond. In the global LCD panel market, the company has kept the leading position for eight years in a row.[8]
With the Galaxy S model, Samsung’s smartphone lineup has retained the second-best slot in the world market for some time.[9] In competition to Apple's iPad tablet, Samsung released the Android powered Samsung Galaxy Tablet[10], despite Samsung manufacturing the iPad's CPU.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Growth
2 Business areas
3 Products
3.1 Semiconductors
3.2 Slimmer panels
3.3 Televisions
3.4 3D experience
3.5 Smart TVs and apps
3.6 Mobile phones
3.7 Home appliances
4 Market share
5 Design
6 Environmental record
7 Corporate name and logo
7.1 Sonic logo
8 Management and board of directors
8.1 Division heads
8.2 Regional directors
9 Sports Clubs
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit]History



Samsung Group headquarters at Samsung Town, Seoul.
Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969[11] in Daegu, South Korea as Samsung Electric Industries, originally manufacturing electronic appliances such as TVs, calculators, refrigerators, air conditioners and washers. By 1981, the company had manufactured over 10 million black and white TVs. In 1988, it merged with Samsung Semiconductor & Communications.
It is noteworthy that Samsung Electronics has grown in leaps and bounds in a business notorious for cyclical fluctuations. Founded in 1938 as a food processing and textile purveyor, the parent group entered the electronic business as late as in 1969 when it created under its wings an electronic component subsidiary. It was a decision made after considering the fast-growing domestic demand for electronic goods.
Just one year after its founding, the Samsung Group established in 1970 another subsidiary Samsung-NEC jointly with Japan’s NEC Corp. to manufacture electric home appliances and audio-visual devices. In 1974, it expanded into the semiconductor business by acquiring Korea Semiconductor, one of the first chip-making facilities in the country at the time. It was soon followed by the 1980 acquisition of Korea Telecommunications, an electronic switching system producer.
In February 1983, Samsung’s founder Lee Byung-chull made an epoch-making announcement, dubbed the “Tokyo declaration,” that his company would enter the DRAM (dynamic random access memory) business. And only one year after the declaration did Samsung became the third company in the world that developed the 64k DRAM after the United States and Japanese predecessors. The march from then onward as the pioneer in the memory chip-making industry has continued to this day for almost three decades.
Although Samsung Electronics was already one of the biggest companies in Korea as early as the 1990s, it now is by far the most important company with unrivaled influence on the economy through a large network of supplier and partner companies as well as through its own revenue-generating power. Since the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the company has become more powerful: While most other high-tech companies were hit by cash-flow problems after the crisis, Samsung could avoid financial difficulties by broad-based structural reforms.
After the crisis subsided, Samsung emerged as a global corporation. For four consecutive years from 2000 to 2003, it posted more than 5-percent net earnings when 16 large conglomerates out of 30 top companies of the nation went out of business in the wake of the unprecedented crisis.[12] [13]
On 2009 and 2010, the US and EU fined Samsung Electronics with 8 other memory chip makers for its part in a price fixing scheme from 1999 to 2002. Other companies fined included Infineon Technologies, Elpida Memory (Hitachi and NEC) and Micron Technology.[14][15][16][17][18] In December 2010, The EU granted immunity to Samsung Electronics for its part in informing on other members (LG Display, AU Optronics, Chimei InnoLux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display) of a price fixing scheme.[19][20]
On April 2011, Samsung Electronics Co. have sold their HDD commercial operation to Seagate Technology for about $1.4 billion with payment of 45.2 million of (Samsung-Seagate) shares (9.6 percent of shares) with value of $687.5 million and the rest will be paid in Cash.[21]
[edit]Growth
Only ten years ago, Samsung’s only goal was to catch up with Japanese rivals. But now it is outperforming major Japanese electronics makers in many categories: in terms of global market share, Samsung is No. 1 in flat-panel TVs and memory chips; it is No. 2 in mobile handsets; it is one of the top suppliers in other home appliances.[22]
In 2005, Samsung surpassed Japanese rival Sony for the first time to become 20th world's largest and most popular consumer brand as measured by Interbrand.[23] In 2006, Business Week rated Samsung as 20th on its list of global brands, 2nd in the electronics industry.[24] Business Week also ranked Samsung as 20th in innovation.[25] In 2007, Samsung Electronics' handset division overtook American rival Motorola, making it the world's second-largest mobile phone maker.[26] In 2009, Samsung overtook Siemens of Germany and Hewlett-Packard of the USA with a revenue of $117.4 billion to take the No.1 spot as the world's largest technology company.[27]
The semiconductor division of Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip and second largest semiconductor manufacturer worldwide.[28] This has been the case for DRAM and SRAM for over a decade.[citation needed]
To become the top brand in the electronics business, Samsung has spent enormous sums on marketing and branding. As part of fulfilling this strategy, the company devised in 1996 a plan to sponsor major sporting events. It succeeded in becoming an official sponsor for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. Samsung today is the name that almost always appears in many big games.[29]
Despite being a giant in the global technology business with enviable growth, Samsung—and its chairman Lee Kun-hee—is famous for fretting over its future and coming crisis. Since returning from a mini retirement in March 2010, Mr. Lee said, “Samsung Electronics’ future is not guaranteed because most of our flagship products will be obsolete in 10 years from now.” [30]
Global consumers’ brand recognition of Samsung Electronics has increased steadily: According to the top-100 brand list compiled by Millward Brown, the British brand consultancy, Samsung, ranked at 68th on its list, was one of the world’s most valuable brands whose growth has been most pronounced during the 2009-2010 period. Its brand value, estimated at as much as US$1.1 billion, grew by 80 percent.
In the “World’s Most Reputable Companies 2010” ranking published by Reputation Institute of the United States, Samsung was placed at 22nd, a large advancement from the previous year’s 74th. This ranking, compiled by the U.S. consulting company since 2006, reflects survey results collected from consumers in 24 different countries for global 600 large corporations in terms of annual revenue and its GDP share in respective countries. The respondents answer questions in seven categories including products and services, innovativeness, work conditions, corporate governance, social responsibility, leadership, and financial performance.
Samsung was also ranked 11th in the “50 Most Innovative Companies 2010” list put out by Business Week, a five-notch increase from the previous year’s 16th. The ranking, collated jointly by the U.S. weekly magazine and Boston Consulting Group since 2005, is based on answers to innovation-related survey questions asked to executives of global corporations. While survey answers take an 80-percent weight to the compilation of the ranking, the remaining 20 percent is accounted for by annual share appreciation (10%) and three-year average sales revenue and profit margin (5% each), respectively.
Samsung had 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 the $400-billion sales revenue within 10 years. In order to cement its leadership in the areas of memory chip and TV production, Samsung has invested aggressively in research and development. The company currently has 24 R&D centers around the world. In the 2010 Business Week innovation ranking, Apple Computer and Google retained the leading positions as in the 2009 list, followed by Microsoft, which gained one notch from 2009’s fourth place.
Meanwhile, Samsung took the 33rd place in the “World’s Most Valuable Brands 2010” list made public by the Forbes magazine. Forbes said that Samsung’s brand value was as much as $12.8 billion with an average sale revenue growth rate of 17 percent for the past three years.
[edit]Business areas


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Samsung Electronics focuses on four areas: Digital Media, Semiconductor, Telecommunication Network, and LCD Digital Appliance.[31]
The Digital Media business area covers computer devices such as laptop computers and laser printers; digital displays such as televisions and computer monitors; and consumer entertainment devices such as DVD players, MP3 players and digital camcorders; and home appliances as refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, washers, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners.
The Semiconductor business area includes semiconductor chips such as SDRAM, SRAM, NAND flash memory; smart cards; Mobile Application Processors; Mobile TV receivers; RF transceivers; CMOS Image sensors, Smart Card IC, MP3 IC, DVD/BD/HD-DVD Player SOC and multi-chip package (MCP); and storage devices such as optical disc drives and hard disk drives.
The Telecommunication Network business area includes multi-service DSLAMs and fax machines; cellular devices such as mobile phones, PDA phones, and hybrid devices called Mobile Intelligent Terminals (MITs); and satellite receivers.
The LCD business area focuses on producing TFT-LCD and organic light-emitting diode (OLED)panels for laptops, desktop monitors, and televisions.
Samsung Print was established in 2009 as a separate entity to focus on B2B sales and has released a broad range of multifunctional devices and printers and more.
[edit]Products

Samsung Electronics manufactures products in a number of categories:
Semiconductor: DRAM, SDRAM, flash memory
[edit]Semiconductors
For more than 20 years since 1993, Samsung has kept the title of the world’s largest memory chip maker. In 2009, it began a strategy of “Green Memory” by which it increased the global DRAM market share to 33 percent. It also started mass-producing 30 nm-class NAND flash memories in the same year whose world share rose as high as 42 percent.[32] It succeeded in 2010 in mass-producing 30 nm-class DRAMs and 20 nm-class NAND flashes, both of which were the first time in the world.[33] According to market research firm Gartner, during the second quarter of 2010 Samsung Electronics took the top position in the DRAM segment due to brisk sales of the item on the world market. Gartner analysts said in their report, “Samsung cemented its leading position by taking a 35-percent market share. All the other suppliers had minimal change in their shares.” Samsung took the top slot in the ranking, followed by Hynix, Elpida, and Micron, said Gartner.[34] Another market researcher IC Insights predicted that Samsung would become the world’s biggest semiconductor chip supplier by 2014 when it surpasses Intel. For the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009, Samsung’s compound annual growth rate (or CAGR) has been 13.5 percent, compared with that for Intel paltry 3.4 percent. Extrapolating this trend to the future, Samsung will be able to catch up with Intel by the year 2014, estimated IC Insights.[35] IC Insights also said that Intel’s 2009 sales revenue had been 52 percent higher than that for Samsung, but that differential narrowed to only 21 percent during the second quarter of 2010 [36]
Another hitherto not-well-publicized area where Samsung had significant business in for years is the foundry segment. Samsung had begun investment in the foundry business since 2006 and now positioned it as one of the strategic pillars for semiconductor growth.[37]
Hard drives
Digital display: LCD displays, LED displays, plasma displays, OLED displays
[edit]Slimmer panels


Galaxy Tab
Samsung Electronics’ TVs and display products have undergone a race toward ever-slimmer panels. In 2009, the company succeeded in developing the super-slim panel for 40-inch LED TVs, with the thickness of 3.9 millimeters (0.15 inch). Dubbed the “Needle Slim,” the panel is as thick (or thin) as two coins put together. This is about a twelfth of the conventional LCD panel whose thickness is approximately 50 millimeters (1.97 inches).
While reducing the thickness substantially, Samsung could maintain the performance as before, including full HD resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, and 5000:1 contrast ratio.[38] In October 2007, Samsung broke the 10-millimeter barrier by introducing the 10-mm thick 40-inch LCD TV panel, followed in October 2008 by the world’s first 7.9-mm panel.[39] Samsung is leading the industry by developing panels for 24-inch LCD monitors (3.5 mm) and 12.1-inch laptops (1.64 mm).[40] According to Samsung officials, the biggest factor in reducing the panel thickness was the LED backlight. They are optimistic that their company could cut TV width by 40 percent within two years from now.[41]
Home electronics: TVs, DVD players, Blu-ray players, home cinema systems, set-top boxes, projectors
[edit]Televisions

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For years in a row, Samsung has taken the top spot in the world TV market, with the launch of best-selling items. In 2009, it sold as many as 31 million flat-panel TVs, maintaining the top position for four consecutive years in terms of world market share.[42] In early 2010, the company had set the year’s sales goal at 39 million units (including 10-million LED TVs).[43]
According to DisplaySearch, the U.S. market research and consulting firm, Samsung is forecast to take a 27-percent share for the global TV market in the second quarter of 2010 while LG Electronics accounts for 26.2 percent of the market. The market researcher predicted that Samsung’s leadership would continue in 2011 [44]
Samsung Electronics is creating a new market by introducing the “Finger-Slim” LED TV. Launched in March 2009, the super-slim LED TV has thus far been sold as many as 2.6 million units. In 2009 alone, it was sold more than 2 million units, which brightens the future prospect.[45]
Samsung has led the flat-panel TV market for the past five years with the 2006 introduction of its “Bordeaux” line, followed by the 2007 Bordeaux model, the 2008 “Crystal Rose” line, and the “Finger-Slim” in 2009.[46] The company retained the leading position by successfully selling more than 1 million 3D TVs as of August 2010.[47]
As rivals are jumping on the bandwagon, Samsung outstrips them by consistently introducing new, better models. Today the company offers the full line of TVs, at many price point.
This company is developing new LED TV models too. After expanding its TV lineups, Samsung became the industry-first 10-million-seller challenge. One of the new products to watch is the full HD 3D LED TV that was launched the first time in March 2010.[48] Combining LED features with 3D functionality, the new 3D TV is expected to lead the market for years to come. Samsung showcased the new TV in the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010) held in Las Vegas early this year.[49]
In 2009, Samsung TVs were selected in major U.K. publications and retailers as the best TV of the year. For example, Samsung’s LED TV 7000 series was the winner of the “Gadget Awards 2009” by T3, U.K.’s most prestigious electronics magazine.[50]
The T3 magazine in its news article on “ten reasons why you should buy Samsung LED TV” listed as the reasons superior picture quality, slim design, energy efficiency and connectivity.[51]
[edit]3D experience
Samsung sold more than 1 million 3D TVs within six months of its launch. This is the figure close to what many market researchers forecast for the year’s worldwide 3D TV sales (1.23 million units).[52] It also debuted the 3D Home Theater (HT-C6950W) that allows the user to enjoy 3D image and surround sound at the same time. With the launch of 3D Home Theater, Samsung became the first company in the industry to have the full line of 3D offerings, including 3D TV, 3D Blu-ray play, 3D content, and 3D glasses.[53]
The company is trying offer the 3D content streaming service on its 3D TVs. Just like iTunes store, the Samsung 3D TV aims to allow the user to connect to its own online store, Samsung Apps, and download applications on the user’s hard disk drive.
[edit]Smart TVs and apps
Samsung has introduced the Internet TV in 2007 that enabled the audience to receive information from the Internet while at the same time watching conventional TV programming. Samsung is also developing a new “Smart LED TV”, (later renamed to just “Samsung Smart TV”[54]) from which consumers can download applications as well as view Internet content. In 2008, the company launched the Power Infolink service, followed in 2009 by a whole new Internet@TV. In 2010, Samsung started marketing the 3D TV while unveiling the upgraded Internet@TV 2010, which offers free (or for-fee) download of applications from its Samsung Apps store, in addition to existing services such as news, weather, stock market, YouTube videos, and movies.[55]
Samsung Apps will provide for-fee premium services starting the latter half of 2010, beginning in Korea and the United States, followed early next year by the same services in Europe. The services will be custom-tailored for each region’s culture. Samsung plans to offer family-oriented applications such as health care programs and digital picture frames as well as games.
SamyGO community created at 2009 for hacking Samsung B series TV firmwares, and later supported A and C series TV's also, under GPLv2 license and deployed new applications like a tool increasing subtitle size and changing its color, enabling PVR functionality of TV, enabling internal video player on low end models, supporting DTS codec on B Series TVs, work around for DLNA problems by playing movies from SAMBA and NFS shares support etc. Also placed web browser right into TV with mouse and keyboard support and many more applications... Samsung started to release restricted firmware updates starting from Feb 2010 for fixing security issues those used by SamyGO community and disabled firmware downgrade option from TV menus, which believed to disable the SamyGO project. But hackers find workarounds for those new restricted firmwares.[56]
Samsung expects that Samsung Apps would ultimately become a multi-device application store attracting users of all kinds of electronic device such as mobile phones, computers, and cameras. The company also reckons that its Smart TV will be the future home entertainment hub.[57] The UK consumers association (Which?) writeup of the latest model in 2011 was highly complimentary of the picture quality [58]
[edit]Mobile phones
Samsung Electronics sold 235 million mobile handsets in the year 2009.[59] At the end of Q3 2010 Samsung had surpassed the 70 million unit mark in shipped phones, giving it a global marketshare of 22% trailing Nokia by 12%.[60] Overall, Samsung sold 280 million mobile phones in 2010, corresponding to a market share of 20.2%.[61]
Following the success of its “Anycall” brand mobile phones in Korea, the company introduced numerous mobile handset models including premium phones, full-touch screen phones, and environmentally friendly phones. Samsung’s flagship mobile handset line is the Galaxy S, which many consider a direct competitor of Apple's popular iPhone.[62] It was initially launched in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea in June 2010 [63][64][65] followed by US variants called Vibrant and Captivate in July and Epic and Fascinate in August and September. It sold more than 1 million units within the first 45 days of in the US alone [66]
Samsung’s I9000 Galaxy S and S8500 Wave smartphones were the winners of the 2010 European EISA Awards in the smartphone and social media phone categories. The I9000 Galaxy S was recognized for its superior-quality screen and excellent connectivity while the S8500 Wave for its Bada operating system with unparalleled social networking and location-based services.[67]
Samsung’s 2010 smartphone shares worldwide are rising rapidly. The share in the United States has doubled in the second quarter of the year from the previous quarter. In the second quarter the company shipped as many as 3 million smartphones, a 173-percent increase from the same period last year.[68]
While many other handset makers tend to focus on supporting one (or at most two) operating system, Samsung has kept supporting a wide range of operating systems in the market. Although the Galaxy S adopts Google Android as the primary operating system, it also supports other competing operating systems such as Symbian, Microsoft Windows Phone, Linux-based LiMo, and Samsung’s proprietary Bada.[69]
The company set the sales goal of the 2010 yearend at 20 million units.[70]
Samsung faces challenges in the phone market. An alliance of Chinese low wage and Taiwanese technology is catching up closely. Smartphone makers such as Apple, RIM, and HTC are busy coming up with new models, and Samsung is working to maintain its top position.
[edit]Home appliances
In 2009, the year of worldwide recession due to the 2008 global credit crisis, Samsung’s sales revenue rose 27 percent from the previous year, the biggest increase in the industry. In the home market, Samsung held the leading position thanks to strong sales of its flagship items, Zipel-brand side-by-side and kimchi refrigerators. In the North American, European, and Russian markets, it solidified its image as a premier home appliance maker by selling so many refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners, as well as new steam microwave ovens and “robot” vacuum cleaners.
In a market clearly split into two extremes of upmarket and budget categories, Samsung employs a two-pronged strategy to emphasize its premium image for affluent consumers while marketing lower-end items with fewer bells and whistles for emerging economies consumers.
In 2009, Samsung introduced a host of new products including a premium mini-laptop computer N310 and slim-sized laptop X420. The N310 and the X420 are the third-generation laptops with all the advanced features as well as portability and connectivity. Thanks to these new market entrants, Samsung could sell as many as 6 million laptops for the year.
In the printer business division, one of the next-generation strategic areas, Samsung launched mono-laser printer, multifunction printer, and enterprise-use high-speed digital multifunction printer models. Samsung was ranked second in the world in the area of letter-size (A4) laser printers. In other segments such as mono-laser printers, multifunction printers, and color laser printers, Samsung was first or second place in the world. In the laser multifunction printer segment, it became No. 1 the first time in its history, all of which indicates that Samsung is growing fast in the printer business despite under the condition of severe economic recession.
In 2010, Samsung introduced many new products boasting energy efficiency and eco-friendliness, including the premium laptop R580, netbook N210, the world’s smallest mono-laser printer ML-1660, and color laser multifunction printer CLX-3185.
In the area of wireless networking, the mobile telecom protocols such as Mobile WiMax and WiBro, the protocols developed by Samsung and adopted in 2007 as international standards, are in wide commercial use in many overseas markets. Since mobile telecom service providers in the United States, Japan, and Russia began deploying the standards, more and more providers (as many as 139 providers in 75 countries) are readying to take it up.
Digital cameras and camcorders are the areas Samsung cannot overlook. The company has introduced several models in these areas such as the WB550 (the premium camera), the ST550 (the dual-LCD-mounted camera), and the HMX-H106 (64GB SSD-mounted full HD camcorder). Samsung in 2009 took the third place in the compact camera segment. Since then, the company has focused more on high-priced items. In 2010, the company launched the NX10, the next-generation interchangeable lens camera, thereby commencing the race toward the new category of camera market.
In the area of storage media, Samsung in 2009 succeeded in grabbing more than 10 percent of the world market share by introducing a new hard disk drive capable of storing 250Gb per 2.5-inch disk.[71] In 2010, the company started marketing the 320Gb-per-disk HDD, the largest in the industry. In addition, it is focusing more on selling external hard disk drives.
In the MP3 player segment, Samsung is doing quite well. It is launching a host of new products including the M1, the premium MP3 player model, and the world’s smallest DivX MP3 player R1.[72]