Samsung Setting Itself Up For Surprise When Apple Unveils New TV
January 17, 2012
Samsung is terrified by Apple.
The Korean electronics giant is proving once again that it just can't grasp Apple's ideas about simplicity, innovation, and mass appeal. Long more a copyist than an incubator, Samsung missed the boat on the tablet space, and it's talking a big game as Apple preps to make a splash in the TV market.
Philip Newton, Samsung Australia's director of A/V, had the following to say to Asher Moses in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald at CES 2011:
When Steve Jobs talked about he's 'cracked it', he's talking about connectivity – so we've had that in the market already for 12 months, it's nothing new, it was new for them because they didn't play in the space. It's old news as far as the traditional players are concerned and we have broadened that with … things like voice control and touch control; the remote control for these TVs has a touch pad.Ooh, Samsung's remotes have touch pads! Hilarious. This guy Newton thinks he knows exactly what Steve Jobs meant by that single Walter Isaacson bio blurb? For a company that's been blindsided by everything Apple's done the last decade, I find that almost impossible to believe. Besides, looking at the the thing logically, it's pretty unlikely that "connectivity" is the entirety of what Jobs was hinting at. The industrial concept's been around since at least the advent of iTunes, and digital, streaming delivery is nothing new. If that's all Samsung thinks is behind Apple's approach, they're in for a world of hurt. As Cult of Mac's Alex Heath says in his appropriately scathing report on the subject,
Newton’s statements are a classic example of how companies like Samsung don’t understand Apple. It’s not about being first to market; it’s about being the best.