First up – What are we talking about? Hankil Yoon, a product strategy surprisingly uttered the words above to CNET at the MWC. Samsung came back later n the day to save its ass with this statement – “Seeking to kill your own product by releasing increasingly compelling devices might position Samsung as a confident brand. A brand ambitious to improve its products so that the choice for consumers is between several Samsung products rather than between Samsung and its competitors’ products.”
Secondly, why is this important? Well, the mess-up and the clean up both show that Samsung, despite releasing more tablets than you can count on your fingers and the huge entity it is in the tablet market, is still no satisfied with its own performance. Here is a real-time view of the tablet market – its 2012, the iPad still rules and the Kindle Fire comes as a runners up.
Finally, analysis and conclusion: Well, Samsung statement can be taken apart when it is viewed in terms of the number of Samsung Galaxy Tabs in the market. Just recently, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 620 and 680 hit the market, while Samsung has gone ahead to reveal the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 ‘Phablet’ at the MWC.
But, despite having tons of tablets sold, Samsung is hardly close to being the market leader. The main reason behind this might be that apart from major updates every damn tablet that they bring out is just an altered copy of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab. While Apple, every time comes out with just one iPad for the whole year, which rattles the tablet market like anything. The contrast between the market strategies of these two market leader shows that quality is better than quantity when it comes to tablets.
Samsung has come a full circle when it comes to smartphones. Its tablet strategy seems fatigued now. Unless it comes up with tablets that give us a little more than its been giving us, Kindle Fire might be just the beginning of Samsung’s tablet market downfall. ‘Seeking to kill your own product’ is what Samsung might end up doing unless it does not mend its ways fast.