Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.  is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in the Yeongtong District of Suwon. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, accounting for 70% of the group’s revenue in 2012. Samsung Electronics has played a key role in the group’s corporate governance due to circular ownership. Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 74 countries and employs around 290,000 people. It is majority-owned by foreign investors. As of 2019, Samsung Electronics is the world’s second-largest technology company by revenue, and its market capitalization stood at US$520.65 billion, the 12th largest in the world.

They are a major manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, image sensors, camera modules, and displays for clients such as Apple, Sony, HTC, and Nokia. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smartphones, starting with the original Samsung Solstice and later, the popularity of its Samsung Galaxy line of devices. The company is also a major vendor of tablet computers, particularly its Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab collection, and is regarded for developing the phablet market with the Samsung Galaxy Note family of devices. It has also developed 5G capable smartphones including the Galaxy S22 and foldable phones including the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Samsung has been the world’s largest television manufacturer since 2006, and the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones since 2011 when it surpassed Apple up until 2021. It is also the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer and, from 2017 to 2018, had been the largest semiconductor company in the world, briefly dethroning Intel, the decades-long champion.

In 2012, Kwon Oh-Hyun was appointed the company’s CEO. He announced in October 2017 that he would resign in March 2018, citing an “unprecedented crisis”. The company had 3 CEOs from March 2018 until December 2021, when  they were replaced. It has also had a separate regional CEO, HC Hong, who led the business in Southwest Asia from 2015 and then moved to Latin America in 2020.

Global Reputation

In mid-November 2021, Samsung Electronics was ranked second in the ‘Best Global Brands’ by YouGov a market research firm.

The company focuses on four areas: digital media, semiconductors, telecommunication networks, and LCD digital appliances.

The digital-media business area covers computer devices such as laptop computers and laser printers; digital displays such as televisions and computer monitors; consumer entertainment devices such as DVD players, MP3 players, and digital camcorders; home appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, washing machines, microwave ovens, and vacuum cleaners.

The semiconductor-business area includes semiconductor chips such as SDRAM, SRAM, NAND flash memory; smart cards; mobile application processors; mobile TV receivers; RF transceivers; CMOS Image sensors, Smart Card IC, MP3 IC, DVD/Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD Player SOC, and multi-chip package (MCP).

The telecommunication-network-business area includes multi-service DSLAMs and fax machines; cellular devices such as mobile phones, PDA phones, and hybrid devices called mobile intelligent terminals (MITs); and satellite receivers.

The LCD business area focuses on producing TFT-LCD and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for laptops, desktop monitors, and televisions.

Samsung Print was established in 2009 as a separate entity to focus on B2B sales and released a broad range of multifunctional devices, printers, and more. As of 2018, Samsung sold its printing business to HP.

Mobile Phones

Although Samsung started with Solstice lines, and has made clamshell design cell phones, Samsung’s flagship mobile handset line is the Samsung Galaxy S series of smartphones, which many consider a direct competitor of the Apple iPhone. It was initially launched in Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea in June 2010, followed by the United States in July. It sold more than one million units within the first 45 days on sale in the United States.

While many other handset manufacturers focused on one or two operating systems, Samsung for a time used several of them: Symbian, Windows Phone, Linux-based LiMo, and Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz, Bada and Tizen.

By 2013 Samsung had dropped all operating systems except Android and Windows Phone. That year Samsung released at least 43 Android phones or tablets and two Windows Phones.

At the end of the third quarter of 2010, the company had surpassed the 70 million unit mark in shipped phones, giving it a global market share of 22 percent, trailing Nokia by 12 percent. Overall, the company sold 280 million mobile phones in 2010, corresponding to a market share of 20.2 percent. The company overtook Apple in worldwide smartphone sales during the third quarter 2011, with a total market share of 23.8 percent, compared to Apple’s 14.6 percent share. Samsung became the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer in 2012, with the sales of 95 million in the first quarter.

During the third quarter of 2013, Samsung’s smartphone sales improved in emerging markets such as India and the Middle East, where cheaper handsets were popular. As of October 2013, the company offers 40 smartphone models on its US website.

In 2019, Samsung announced that it has ended production of mobile phones in China, due to lack of Chinese demand. As of 2019 Samsung employs over 200,000 employees in the Hanoi-area of Vietnam to produce Smartphones, while offsourcing some manufacturing to China and manufacturing large portions of its phones in India.

US variants of Samsung Galaxy smartphones do not have the option to unlock the bootloader.

Semiconductors

Samsung Electronics has been the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer since 1993, and the largest semiconductor company since 2017.Samsung Semiconductor division manufactures various semiconductor devices, including semiconductor nodes, MOSFET transistors, integrated circuit chips, and semiconductor memory.

Since the early 1990s, Samsung Electronics has commercially introduced a number of new memory technologies. They commercially introduced SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random-access memory) in 1992, and later DDR SDRAM (double data rate SDRAM) and GDDR (graphics DDR) SGRAM (synchronous graphics RAM) in 1998. In 2009, Samsung started mass-producing 30 nm-class NAND flash memory, and in 2010 succeeded in mass-producing 30 nm class DRAM and 20 nm class NAND flash, both of which were for the first time in the world.They also commercially introduced TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash memory in 2010, V-NAND flash in 2013, LPDDR4 SDRAM in 2013, HBM2 in 2016, GDDR6 in January 2018, and LPDDR5 in June 2018.

Another area where the company has had significant business in for years is the foundry segment. It had begun investment in the foundry business since 2006, and positioned it as one of the strategic pillars for semiconductor growth. Since then, Samsung has been a leader in semiconductor device fabrication. Samsung began mass-production of a 20 nm class semiconductor manufacturing process in 2010, followed by a 10 nm class FinFET process in 2013, and 7 nm FinFET nodes in 2018. They also began production of the first 5 nm nodes in late 2018, with plans to introduce 3 nm GAAFET nodes by 2021.

According to market research firm Gartner, during the second quarter of 2010, Samsung Electronics took the top position in the DRAM segment due to brisk sales of the item on the world market. Gartner analysts said in their report, “Samsung cemented its leading position by taking a 35-percent market share. All the other suppliers had minimal change in their shares.” The company took the top slot in the ranking, followed by Hynix, Elpida, and Micron, said Gartner.

In 2010, market researcher IC Insights predicted that Samsung would become the world’s-biggest semiconductor chip supplier by 2014, surpassing Intel. For the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009, Samsung’s compound annual growth rate in semiconductor revenues was 13.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for Intel. For 2015, IC Insights and Gartner announced that Samsung was the fourth largest chip manufacturer in the world. Samsung eventually surpassed Intel to become the world’s largest semiconductor company in 2017.

By the second quarter of 2020 the company had planned to start mass production of 5 nm chips using Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) and aimed to become a leader in EUV process use.

On 30 November 2021, announced the company would be producing new auto chips for Volkswagen vehicles. The logic chips will be used in entertainment systems to provide 5G telecommunications to meet the increased demand for high-definition video while traveling.

The Xi’an China facility, which has been running since 2014 and it produces approximately 40 percent of Samsung Electronics NAND flash memory chips.

Solid-State Drives

In 2016, Samsung also launched to market a 15.36TB SSD with a price tag of US$10,000 using a SAS interface, using a 2.5-inch form factor but with the thickness of 3.5-inch drives. This was the first time a commercially available SSD had more capacity than the largest currently available HDD. In 2018, Samsung introduced to market a 30.72 TB SSD using a SAS interface. Samsung introduced an M.2 NVMe SSD with read speeds of 3500 MB/s and write speeds of 3300 MB/s in the same year.

In 2019, Samsung introduced SSDs capable of 8 GB/s sequential read and write speeds and 1.5 million IOPS, capable of moving data from damaged chips to undamaged chips, to allow the SSD to continue working normally, albeit at a lower capacity. SSDs models beginning with a 9 use an NVM Express interface and the rest use a Serial ATA interface. Samsung also produces consumer portable SSDs using a USB-C USB 3.1 Gen 2 connector. The drives offer read speeds of 1,050MB/s and write speeds of 1,000MB/s and are available as 500GB, 1TB and 2TB models.

Like many other SSD producers, Samsung’s SSDs use NAND flash memory produced by Samsung Electronics.

Hard-drives

In the area of storage media, in 2009 Samsung achieved a ten percent world market share, driven by the introduction of a new hard disk drive capable of storing 250Gb per 2.5-inch disk. In 2010, the company started marketing the 320Gb-per-disk HDD, the largest in the industry. In addition, it was focusing more on selling external hard disk drives. Following financial losses, the hard disk division was sold to Seagate in 2011 in return for a 9.6% ownership stake in Seagate.

Televisions

In 2009, Samsung sold around 31 million flat-panel televisions, enabling to it to maintain the world’s largest market share for a fourth consecutive year.

Samsung launched its first full HD 3D LED television in March 2010. Samsung had showcased the product at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2010) held in Las Vegas.

Samsung sold more than one million 3D televisions within six months of its launch. This is the figure close to what many market researchers forecast for the year’s worldwide 3D television sales (1.23 million units). It also debuted the 3D Home Theater (HT-C6950W) that allows the user to enjoy 3D image and surround sound at the same time. With the launch of 3D Home Theater, Samsung became the first company in the industry to have the full line of 3D offerings, including 3D television, 3D Blu-ray player, 3D content, and 3D glasses.

In 2007, Samsung introduced the “Internet TV”, enabling the viewer to receive information from the Internet while at the same time watching conventional television programming. Samsung later developed “Smart LED TV” (now renamed to “Samsung Smart TV”), which additionally supports downloaded smart television apps. In 2008, the company launched the Power Infolink service, followed in 2009 by a whole new Internet@TV. In 2010, it started marketing the 3D television while unveiling the upgraded Internet@TV 2010, which offers free (or for-fee) download of applications from its Samsung Apps Store, in addition to existing services such as news, weather, stock market, YouTube videos, and movies.

Samsung Apps offers for-fee premium services in a few countries including Korea and the United States. The services will be custom-tailored for each region. Samsung plans to offer family-oriented applications such as health care programs and digital picture frames as well as games. Samsung’s range of smart TVs include the apps ITV Player and motion controlled Angry Birds.