Galaxy S4, symbol of the power of Samsung - Le Figaro

Launched Wednesday, this smartphone in Korea should take 10% of the market. The group is the pride of the country.

Samsung

fans await appointment with impatience. The marketing of the Galaxy S4, the new smartphone from Korean, begins this week. Just store it is already promised to a bright future. Analysts estimate that 100 million copies would be sold worldwide. In other words, it would weigh 10% of the smartphone market alone.

his latest, Samsung deploys extreme measures. Investment in marketing and communications made could reach billion. Last year, the Korean has spent 4.3 billion dollars worldwide to promote its brand, according asymco.com site. That’s four times more than Apple. The economic and industrial models of the two giants are radically opposed. The U.S. has opted for the “fabless”. Its products are “designed in California, made in China.” The Apple brand has preferred to control its distribution, with a network of over 400 own stores in the world. At Samsung, shops dedicated to rely, for the moment, on the fingers of one hand. From an industrial point of view, the landscape is quite different.

advanced technology

“Overall, Samsung is at least 63% of the total cost of materials and components used in the S4,” said IHS Supply. U.S. firm takes a

famous slogan to sum up the Galaxy S4: “Samsung inside.” The touch screen, a key element of the smartphone – the image quality and responsiveness are among the most scrutinized criteria – is from one of the group’s subsidiaries, Samsung Display. Samsung Semiconductor provides the largest contribution to the smartphone. Much processors phone and memory are also from this division. The S4 is more vertically integrated. Samsung has developed its own software services, in addition to those offered by Android (operating system from Google, which equips the terminal). “Samsung is competing with Google’s own services like Google Wallet and Google Play (application store, Ed) and its own applications,” said Ian Fogg, director of mobile research at IHS Supply & telecommunications.

This integration gives Samsung a force any of his competitors, except to some extent LG and Sony has not. Being master of supply, the Korean is certain to escape the pressures. We have seen the consequences of repeated trial between Apple and Samsung, which have forced the U.S. to reconsider its policy of purchasing components. In addition, the Korean flagship products, such as S4, enjoy a technological advantage over their competitors. It is not uncommon for the latest discoveries are reserved for Samsung brand products for a few months, such as the ability to move from one screen to another with a simple movement of the eyes (eye scrolling). However, in this area, a few months is enough to widen the gap with rivals.