Samsung: We're Fine With Following Instead of Leading

Samsung has stressed that while Apple focuses on creating new markets and dominating them, the South Korean technology company is willing to follow the market leader.

"We get most of our ideas from the market," Samsung EVP Kim Hyun-suk told The New York Times during  an interview. "The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction."

Comparatively, Apple’s late co-founder Steven Jobs rejected the idea of relying on market research. He had stated that consumers don’t know what they want. Either way, Samsung has become the market leader for smartphones and cell phones.

It was the global worldwide mobile phone market leader during 2012, with the company shipping approximately one quarter of all mobile phones on the planet -- 63 million units during 2012's Q4 and 396.5 million units throughout 2012. It has also replaced Apple as the U.S. smartphone market leader predominately due to the popularity of its Galaxy S3. Elsewhere, the company overtook Apple as the world's leading chip buyer.

Samsung also outspends Apple on research and development, with the firm spending $10.5 billion, or 5.7 percent of its revenue, while Apple spent $3.4 billion, or 2.2 percent of its revenue during 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics' revenue for last year stood at $183.5 billion with its competitor generating $156.5 billion.

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  • victorintelr
    As long as the comment is not taken from Apple as an excuse for another lawsuit, it should be fine, though I don't think many will like it. Obviously Samsung is not leading in every sense, but the addition of a different point of view and products to the market other than one phone, one size, one interface is always welcome and benefits the costumer.
    Edit: By the way. My opinion is straight from the Source. The original source also gives examples of Samsung Leading, not just following (but Zak omitted like 99% of the article anyways...)
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    Why can't video game industry follow Steve job market research mentality. EA market research, the target audience needs more Call of Duty. let's lower the threshold and make games for the casual.
    Reply
  • wannabepro
    Zak, this brings your "journalism" to a new low.
    "We get most of our ideas from the market," Samsung EVP Kim Hyun-suk told The New York Times during an interview. "The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction."
    This doesn't mean that Samsung is content with following Apple. It means Samsung is content with giving consumers/customers what they want.

    It means Samsung isn't trying to shove something down the consumer's throat.. As with the case Microsoft and Win8. (Not hating on Win8, just a fact..)

    They have a larger market share, have better products and spend more $$$ on R&D. Does this sound like a company content with following crApple?
    Reply
  • tiret
    ^+1. this looks like a cheap stab at Samsung by a fanboy journalist. unless you can quote samsung saying they are content following apple - do not say it. the quote was clearly "We get most of our ideas from the market"
    Reply
  • thety6on
    Sigh. More of Zak Islam and his inaccurate apple promoting articles. When will Tom's ever fire this guy?
    Reply
  • thety6on
    otacon72When will whining bitches like yourself stfu?
    Man, just looking at your post history is hilarious. Apple fanboyism at its best.

    Anyway, anything you say can't change the fact that Zak writes articles that stretch the truth by a LOT. Almost always in Apple's favor.
    Reply
  • Kami3k
    Really?
    Reply
  • umadfanboy
    otacon72Moderator:Please watch the profanity and language.
    U Mad Fan Boy ???

    He only said that your @pple lover should have been fired already.
    Reply
  • kartu
    Yeah, company that has best screens on the market and spends gazillions on R&D, recently demoed flexible OLED screens is only "a follower", right.

    And "driven by market" immediately becomes "driven by apple".
    Because, you know, when PDAs era was over, combining a phone into "a kind of PDA" wasn't obvious.
    And, oh oh oh, we didn't have tablets let alone multitouch back in 90th (which cost 2k+ $ at that time).
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    Yeah, the entire tone of the source article is quite different.
    Additionally, it clearly states that Samsung does create new markets (phablet given as an example).

    I would recommend that everyone just click through to the source story; it is not very long and quite a bit more balanced.
    Reply