Samsung targets enterprise
While Samsung is in a “comfortable” number two position in the consumer notebook space in South Africa – with a 17% chunk of the market – the electronics giant is making a big play for a greater slice of the enterprise pie, where its market share is still in the single digits.
The current enterprise environment is buzzing with trendwords like “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device) and “hybrid mobility”, which presents challenges to IT departments who have to manage the integration of these changing business needs.
Speaking to BusinessTech at the 2013 Samsung Forum Africa, Samsung head of IT Business, Mike Van Lier, said that Samsung’s goal is to provide the best ecosystems and products to accomodate this shift.
Mike van Lier
Breaking into enterprise
But that’s not to say breaking the big numbers will be easy. Samsung faces a lot of competition in the notebook market, with brands such as Dell, HP and Lenovo all operating in the same space.
Even Microsoft has hardware running its own ecosystem – so what will differentiate Samsung from the rest?
According to Van Lier, for Samsung, it’s all about the product.
Highlighting Samsung’s hybrid tablet/notebook Smart PCs (such as the ATIV Pro, which runs Windows 8 Pro), Van Lier said that 30% of all notebook devices sold into Samsung’s distribution channel (which includes companies such as Tarsus, Pinnacle, Mustek and Rectron), are Smart PCs.
“How do you get devices into these channels? It’s all about the product,’ Van Lier said.
“Samsung is gaining in innovation,” he said, noting that Samsung has approximately 60,500 people working on research and development – an area where Van Lier opines other brands are lacking.
With Microsoft’s move into hardware with the Surface tablet (which is currently not available in South Africa), Van Lier believes that it served a common goal for the companies in creating hype around the ecosystem – which Samsung supports.
“Microsoft focuses on software – and Samsung’s focus is on hardware,” Van Lier said, “IT managers want Microsoft devices – those are the products that they want.”
Integrated ecosystem
Partnering in South Africa
Locally, Samsung has also engaged in a number of other partnerships for both the consumer and enterprise sectors to further differentiate itself in the market.
A deal with AlwaysOn will see all Samsung device users get access to 1GB of free WiFi for 12 months.
On a more business-specific deal, Samsung has partnered with Vodacom Business, which will see the companies working together to get both their products and services into the business market with a dedicated support structure on-hand.
The deal is non-exclusive, and according to Samsung SA head of mobile product and software solutions, Paulo Ferreira, the company is open to exploring similar deals with other operators.
With a bolder move to bring both Microsoft and Android devices closer together in the business environment, Van Lier said that ecosystem integration is “paramount” to Samsung.
“There are going to be big things happening in terms of ecosystem integration – watch this space,” he said.
Quinton was a guest of Samsung at the 2013 Forum Africa conference held in Cape Town.
More on Samsung
New Apple vs Samsung patent case to go ahead
Apple’s Samsung ban revival rejected
Samsung dominates in global mobile phone sales
Samsung SA shows off holiday wares
Loading ...