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I met the Samsung team by accident several years ago at TC Disrupt. We were having lunch at the same table. Being in the mobile health space, I instantly went

I met the Samsung team by accident several years ago at TC Disrupt. We were having lunch at the same table. Being in the mobile health space, I instantly went into my pitching mode and started selling them on the virtues of mobile health and why it would help provide some platform stickiness (if I have a chronic disease and have lots of health data there, I wouldn't want to switch platform and lose my valuable data). This was before Apple Health was launched or was ever mentioned. Quickly it became clear to me, Samsung was ahead of me and they fully understood the value of health data. And it was very clear how strategic they were about the future of mobile and ways the would be able to keep people on their platform. It's obvious Samsung understands the value of software. Especially as more Chinese or Taiwanese companies are making competing hardware, it's become very difficult to differentiate or be able to differentiate in the long-run. It's natural Samsung would want to find ways of differentiating against their competitors. However, they have not been successful yet. I think part of the problem is corporate structure/culture. Will Samsung be able to build an entire consumer software division that is free to operate fast, test things and break things? Or will the team be slowed down having to coordinating with Seoul? Either way, Samsung will alway be one step behind Google, not having full visibility in Googles updates. And there is a chance that Google may want to put a distance between itself and the other handset makers just to reap more profits from their hardware division. If I was samsung, I would try to focus on killer apps within the asian market. For example, Yandex (of Russia) until recently (and maybe still) had far better map over google maps in their region. Even for places like Turkey, Yandex had a better map. Can Samsung become the brand for providing far better mapping technology in the region? Can they build much better search technology for asian languages?

make3 10y ago
"I met the Samsung team" Weirdly worded since the Samsung mobile team is fucking huge and fits in multiple buildings in multiple countries
- jamestnz 10y ago
  Less weird when you take into consideration the rest of the sentence: "I met the Samsung team ... at TC Disrupt". So "team" in that context would be the folks that Samsung were sending to TC, not the whole company-wide team.
protomyth 10y ago
Will Samsung be able to build an entire consumer software division that is free to operate fast, test things and break things? I'm hoping that developers, particularly of health software, aren't allowed to break things. All you do is cause pain to your customers. I wish our profession valued stability a whole lot more. I am getting sick of explaining why previously working things don't anymore because of some grand change.
kalleboo 10y ago
The problem with the "focus on the Asian market" plan is thst the biggest Asian markets are pretty much closed off to Samsung - China due to protectionism and Japan due to nationalism
- MBCook 10y ago
  What about India?
  - genghizkhan 10y ago
    It's still a market, but people usually go for cheaper, Chinese branded phones these days.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Both Google and Apple have recently made strong investments in India - look to Android One and Apple's move to manufacture iPhones in India.
hkmurakami 10y ago
Define their region. South Korea? Unfortunately domestic consumption is not large enough (which in turn fueled their success as an export economy). China/Japan/India? Remember that "Asia" is not a real region. Each country has different idiosyncrasies. What edge does Samsung have in these disparate markets?
- ptx 10y ago
  In India they have launched several Tizen-based phones (exclusively for the Indian market) where the edge seems to be better performance on cheaper hardware, with Tizen apps being written in C with the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries.
Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
Samsung do (quietly) own a mapping company: it's called Mapzen and it's building on OpenStreetMap data.
- huxley 10y ago
  It's part of the Samsung Accelerator, but do they actually own it?
  - Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
    I don't know their corporate structure, but I don't believe they've received any non-Samsung funding nor have any significant sales income. Open to correction as ever.
deleted 10y ago
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make3 10y ago

"I met the Samsung team" Weirdly worded since the Samsung mobile team is fucking huge and fits in multiple buildings in multiple countries

jamestnz 10y ago
Less weird when you take into consideration the rest of the sentence: "I met the Samsung team ... at TC Disrupt". So "team" in that context would be the folks that Samsung were sending to TC, not the whole company-wide team.

protomyth 10y ago

Will Samsung be able to build an entire consumer software division that is free to operate fast, test things and break things? I'm hoping that developers, particularly of health software, aren't allowed to break things. All you do is cause pain to your customers. I wish our profession valued stability a whole lot more. I am getting sick of explaining why previously working things don't anymore because of some grand change.

kalleboo 10y ago

The problem with the "focus on the Asian market" plan is thst the biggest Asian markets are pretty much closed off to Samsung - China due to protectionism and Japan due to nationalism

MBCook 10y ago
What about India?
- genghizkhan 10y ago
  It's still a market, but people usually go for cheaper, Chinese branded phones these days.
- r00fus 10y ago
  Both Google and Apple have recently made strong investments in India - look to Android One and Apple's move to manufacture iPhones in India.

hkmurakami 10y ago

Define their region. South Korea? Unfortunately domestic consumption is not large enough (which in turn fueled their success as an export economy). China/Japan/India? Remember that "Asia" is not a real region. Each country has different idiosyncrasies. What edge does Samsung have in these disparate markets?

ptx 10y ago
In India they have launched several Tizen-based phones (exclusively for the Indian market) where the edge seems to be better performance on cheaper hardware, with Tizen apps being written in C with the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries.

Doctor_Fegg 10y ago

Samsung do (quietly) own a mapping company: it's called Mapzen and it's building on OpenStreetMap data.

huxley 10y ago
It's part of the Samsung Accelerator, but do they actually own it?
- Doctor_Fegg 10y ago
  I don't know their corporate structure, but I don't believe they've received any non-Samsung funding nor have any significant sales income. Open to correction as ever.

deleted 10y ago

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