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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