Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung is launching a range of notebooks here – its first stab at New Zealand's PC market.Samsung NZ managing director Rachael Cotton-Bronte, acknowledged that her company was entering a very “competitive, co
.jpg)
Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung is launching a range of notebooks here – its first stab at New Zealand's PC market.
Samsung NZ managing director Rachael Cotton-Bronte, acknowledged that her company was entering a very “competitive, commoditised and cut-throat market.”
Not to mention a mature market.
But Samsung has been in this position before; most notably in the NZ flatscreen TV market, where independent market tracker GFK now puts it at No 1.
Ms Cotton-Bronte (last seen heading Google’s NZ operation, and previously with HP) said Samsung would stand out with an emphasis on “designer features” that would appeal to consumers.
A move into the business market will come later.
As with some of its other IT products (which include printers and monitors), Samsung’s NZ operation is co-distributing with Ingram Micro. Samsung is concentrating on directly managing retail outlets, where it has the closest contacts (initial resellers for the laptops are JB Hi-Fi, Smith City and Good Guys).
Ahead of Apple, Sony, worldwide
While Samsung has been relatively unknown in notebooks and still trails market leaders HP and Dell by a large margin, it has been coming up in the world of late.
By iSupply’s count, Samsung more than doubled its shipments year-on-year in the June quarter, to 1.9 million, making it the world’s fastest growing computer maker.
In the process, it passed Sony and Apple to claim the No 7 slot in the global ranking of laptop sales, with 3.9% market share.
A move into the US market during the first quarter was the main reason for the sales jump.
Ms Cotton-Bronte won’t make any predictions locally.
Samsung kicks off here with a range that spans from a $699 netbook to a $2299 thin and light model with 13.3-inch LED display.
Aside from what it calls designer looks, the company is pushing its AllShare technology as a point of difference. AllShare is designed for wirelessly sharing content between a laptop and a compatible (that is, Samsung) phone, camera or TV.
