Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 17:07
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
If there was a way you could print money, wouldn’t you implement it?
That’s exactly what Samsung is doing with its new strategy to make
business printing – for SOHO, medium and large businesses – a major new
plank of its growth strategy, while challenging all the major printing
incumbents.
Samsung, a company that has actually been in the printer business since 1983, is the OEM manufacturer of laser printers for some of the industry’s biggest players, none of which it named, but now wants to challenge more directly than ever.
Samsung, like its Korean brother LG (formerly Lucky Goldstar for those who remember the ‘Goldstar’ brand), has had quite an amazing transformation over the past decade or so.
It has successfully moved from ‘only’ being an OEM manufacturer for a wide range of consumer electronics into a top tier ‘own’ brand in its own right, challenging the Sony’s, Panasonics and other major Japanese, US and other global brands for market domination.
Given the success Samsung continues to have both in the OEM manufacturing business, and in creating its own top-notch whitegoods, consumer electronics, computers, TVs and more – why not make the lucrative printer businesses a new growth area, which Samsung is already a major player in behind the scenes?
Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what Samsung has decided to do, throwing down the competitive gauntlet to all the existing printer companies (and especially the ones it currently OEM’s printers for) by globally releasing a massive 26 new models at a media and dealer partner event in Bali, Indonesia, which I attended late last week.
From the entry level mono laser, through to the world’s smallest colour laser, all the way through to high end multi-function models for businesses large and small, Samsung is evidently serious about being as successful in printers as a top tier brand as they have become in consumer electronics.
In addition, Samsung’s higher-end printers and copiers that challenge the Fuji Xeroxes, HPs, Canons and others don’t just compete on a feature basis also incorporate workflow technologies and a programmable operating system giving companies much greater flexibility in managing and customising their fleets.
Features in business printers and copiers also allows the printer to ‘follow’ the user, by letting the user “print” to the printer network, then go to the nearest printer, swipe an access card, and get access to the documents they have stored on that network to print at will.
Of course, the major printing competitors that Samsung is challenging will undoubtedly say that Samsung has a tough challenge ahead of it as it strives to be No.1 in printers by 2010.
But when you’re the OEM manufacturer for some (but clearly not all) of the existing printer manufacturers, at least in some of their models, the economies of scale of being the actual manufacturer come into play, and give that manufacturer, i.e. Samsung, a clear competitive advantage that will inevitably, in the years to come, see Samsung part ways with some of the companies it manufactures printers for.
So, what printers and multi-function models has Samsung launched, and are they interested in also moving into the inkjet printer business? Please read onto page 2.
