“Electronics giant Samsung said Apple will feel the heat this year,” Michael Kanellos reports for CNET News. “South Korea-based Samsung last year publicly vowed to take away Apple’s top spot in music players by 2007. This year it will kick off that effort with a bevy of products and large ad campaigns, according to Peter Weedfald, senior vice president of consumer electronics for Samsung’s North American division, during an interview last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Macworld, Apple’s opportunity to be in the spotlight, begins this week.”
“‘What’s the difference between how they have gone to market and how we have gone to market? It’s real simple. They spent $165 million last year to advertise Apple MP3 products. We spent $1 million,’ Samsung’s Weedfald said. ‘We are going to break the code. In 2006, we are going to over-invest in advertising and marketing around these really hot new digital video and digital audio products, and we will spend tens of millions of dollars,'” Kanellos reports. “Apple has maintained a distant lead in the MP3 market. So to gain market share, Samsung said it will issue a broad array of products, some of which it expects to become breakaway hits. That’s how the company became a top player globally in cell phones… Many of the company’s music players will sport dual functionality. The Helix and Nexus MP3 players, unfurled at CES, come with an integrated XM satellite radio receiver.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “macnut222” for the link.]
It’s good to have goals. We’ve marked our iCal and we’ll revisit the issue on December 31, 2006.
[UPDATE: 4:55pm ET: revised deadline to the even more ludicrous date of Dec. 31, 2006. Thanks, hammer.]
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Sounds like the same speech Sim Won Hoo from Creative made last year … and we all know how that worked out.
better make that december 31 2006. They are saying BY 2007 which means this year
suuuuuuuuuuuuure they will.
Samsung can advertise all they want, but when a prospective customer asks “will it work with iTunes?” and gets a no for an answer, they’ll go find something else that will.
Are they buying Apple?
Is Jobs going over to Disney and becomming their CEO?
Is Disney buying Pixar?
the only reason that samsung has the global lead in anything is that companies like verizon virtually give away their crappy phones. most people, especially kids, couldn’t care less what kind of phone they use, as long as they can yak with their equally empty-headed buddies. wingsy has it right: “will it work with iTunes?” compare the crap that samsung makes with anything Apple and the choice is simple. somehow, i don’t think Local Leader Steve J will lose any rest over yet another nasty korean karetsu attempting to apply “heat” to the iPod.
For all the analysts talk of how locking consumers into the FairPlay DRM will doom Apple in the long run, it seems that it may turn out to be their greatest strength. Who wants to switch to a Samsung player and have to repurchase all their music… particularly when the iPod is already a perfectly good player? Samsung would have to come up with something SIGNIFICANTLY better to take most consumers away from the iPod. Not to mention that many people really don’t give a rat’s ass about the player itself and only buy the iPod because it’s the in thing. Many of my friends didn’t even consider other players before getting an iPod.
We are already into week 2 of January 2006. They had better get moving if this is supposed to happen by Dec 31. Although, if I had a nickel for every mp3 player that was going to dethrone the ipod I would be a rich man. I have looked at the Samsung MP3 players and outside of the iPod the are the best I have seen. Altough, I don’t think they are going to take over the number one spot anytime soon. Not to say that it can’t be done but it isn’t going to be as easy as these people seem to think it will be.
Superior products. Superior Experience. Apple.
Sorry, Samsung, I was distracted by the sound of flying pigs…
Just think we used to have:
wysiwyg what you see is what you get
and now
wiwwit Will it work with iTunes.
Apple needs to market this concept to the max.
They just don’t get it do they! No one wants FM radio let alone XM satellite radio! I refuse to pay a subscription for ANYTHING!!!
Creative “iPod Killer” crap is left on shelves that are completely empty of all iPods, and no player has the accessories that the iPods have.
It’s iPods and iTunes and iTMS that people want, since nobody is copying this triumvirate nobody is really competition.
Dream on Samsung, dream on!
MW = program
as in, they just can’t seem to get with the program, frankly I hope they never do!
I will marry Keira Knightly by 2007. So what if she’s never heard of me and would have no interest in me? I’ll just “spend tens of millions of dollars” in advertising and it’ll all work out… somehow. Sounds like a plan!
Keira and I will be registering at the Apple store, in case any of you want to send gifts.
hahaha winston. ZING!
wait…..
does the apple store really have a registry?
oh man, if they don’t, they should definitely look into it.
Stick to pumping out those chips to meet Apples demands thanks Samsung.
Their phones are easy to use, though not exactly bleeding edge on the style stakes.
The aspiration would seem to rather assume that Apple doesn’t have any updates or improvements to make on the present lineup.
I do rather like my vPod!
“Samsung said it will issue a broad array of products, some of which it expects to become breakaway hits. “
Fantastic strategy, Samsung. Fantastic. It helped Creative…really.
In some areas, it is possible to get this to work, eg cell phones. I believe a better strategy here is to invest the $ in design of a good line with 1-3 key players, like Apple with the iPod, the nano, and the shuffle (I think it’s safe to discount storage size as differentiating types of players in the iPod line). Putting money into making quality hardware that looks cool is going to be more successful than scaring away the masses with a trillion different types of players. All the marketing $ is fine, but when you divide it up too much amongst 15 players, you’ve diluted the effect.
My only worry about this is that Samsung supplies Apple with the Flash memory they use in the nanos and shuffles. Hopefully they won’t pull any nasty business.
Funny, I didn’t even know Samsung made phones. So much for that idea!
Winston, that was classic!
They’ll have to start by handing out free players to all the music stars and make sure they tell their fans that they are cooler than iPods. Perhaps they should start with Bono?
Fat chance. Samsung will throw away their ad money.
Samsungs MP3-players are just like their phones: quite good actually.
iPods sell because of two reasons:
they’re fashionable – like Nokias were in the first years of cell phones;
they work seamlessly with our computers – but there’s no reason why a simple interface as iTunes couldn’t be copied, or surpassed.
Eventually iPod market share has to stabilize on a lower level, and maybe sooner than we think. But that would still mean way more iPods than they sell now.
Doesn’t sound too good, Apple’s flash memory supplier going into competition with their own customer.
But then again Samsung got investigated by thier governement for giving Apple too much supply.
So perhaps this is just a PR stunt.
After all Sony is competiting with Apple on a few fronts and supplies Apple with BlueRay devices and music.
So like it always has been, the customer decides the product.
Except in Soviet Russia, where the product decides you.
Definition of Insanity: Doing the same exact thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Ah, isn’t this dribble the “Creative” plan circa 2004?
This reminds me of the old saying:
“Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash.”
Is this a joke? Are they planning a play on words like “Sam Sung” a song?
Sheeesh. Spend away Sammy boy. Spend ALL THE MONEY!
It’s a shame all the wanna-bes can’t think of a new ORIGINAL PRODUCT!
You’d think they would have learned from Creative and all the millions they spent thinking advertising was gonna take the iPod down.
MW: MORONS!
Ahhhhhh-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Guess they didn’t learn anything from Sim Wong Boo Frickety Hoo.
It’s never been *if* a company could bring a competitive product to market against Apple… but *when*.
Being an American, I’m rooting for Apple. I hope they’ll be able to stem the tide of challengers. Being a consumer, I say welcome to the market and may the best company win.