Samsung Executive Opens Up About Company's Tablets
by Brent Dirks
February 27, 2012
While Samsung may be close to becoming an also-ran in the tablet market dominated by the iPad, at least one executive is honest about the company’s efforts so far.
CNET reported that Hankil Yoon, a product strategy executive for Samsung, actually opened up during a media roundtable at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:
"Honestly, we're not doing very well in the tablet market.”Samsung currently sits in a distant third place in the tablet market. The company was second for a while, but the low-price Kindle Fire scored big in the holiday quarter, placing Amazon in the number two spot. A recent report also predicted that the iPad will continue its domination until at least 2015. But while Yoon was at least honest for a bit, he then began to offer an interesting look at Samsung’s new tablets. For those having a hard time keeping track (I know I can’t), the company introduced a 10.1-inch tablet to compliment existing models of 7 and 9 inches. That doesn’t even count the “phablet” Galaxy Note, a phone with a Godzilla-gigantic 5-inch screen and yes, stylus. Yoon said he expects to ship an eye-opening 10 million units of the phone, which has been lambasted for its screen size. And surpisingly the executive said he didn't mind one product from Samsung canibalizing another:
"The best thing to survive in the market is to kill your products," Yoon said. "We want to stay competitive in the market."That's not exactly what I would like to hear as a consumer. Just like my colleague A.T. Faust III said recently about the upcoming Apple TV, Samsung will continue to fail until it understands the power of Apple products and stop just ripping off designs. (Image via TechnoBuffalo)