Samsung Inspires Asia

Samsung has achieved notable success in the printer market in recent years and is seen as a strong competitor to the likes of HP and Lexmark. Last December, Samsung initiated its push into the corporate sector by launching the SCX-6345N, an A4 multifunction printer. At the time, Anthony Toope, marketing manager IT Division, Samsung Electronics Australia, said it was the first time they had come to market with a mid to high-end printer. On the back of continued success in the printing sector, Samsung launched another 26 printers at the recent InspirAsia Tour for 2008, with a focus on providing solutions.

The new line comes with a strong ambition, the vendor aims to become the top two vendor in the regional printer market. Jang Jae Lee, senior vice president, strategic marketing team, digital printing division, said that Samsung is the fastest growing printing brand in South East Asia.

“We already became a major player in the printing industry. We have the number one growth rate compared with our competitors,” he said. “The size of the printing market is really big compared with other market sizes. The memory chip market is US$60 billion, the TV market is US$101 billion and the printer market is US$131 billion. That’s a very attractive size,” he said.

Samsung also unveiled its aim to nearly double revenue by “delivering increased efficiency and flexibility to businesses of all sizes.” This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds considering Samsung registered more than 80 per cent growth in 2007 after an initial foray into the corporate sector. Key areas of growth across the South East Asia region included verticals such as government, finance, telecommunications, retail, energy and automotive. Large contracts were secured with companies such as BP and Vodafone in Australia, as well as 7-Eleven in Singapore and Thailand, and the Ministry of Education in Malaysia and Singapore. Sang-Jin Park, regional CEO and President of Samsung Asia is confident the company can keep growing from strength to strength.

“To achieve these ambitious targets, Samsung will make further inroads into the B2B segment, in particular shifting our focus to digital copier and corporate print business and zooming in on mid to high range colour products,” said Park. “Beyond products and solutions, Samsung will also enhance our channel network, service infrastructure and organisational structure to support and drive the next stage of our business growth. By year end, we aim to expand our channel coverage by increasing our pool of corporate and official authorised resellers. In addition we are extending our presence into non-traditional channels.”

The expansion target is set for 80 percent, and for the first time Samsung has announced that they will start working with system integrators.

In the question and answer session, Lee prematurely mentioned that there will be a new channel program launched in the second half of this year. Australia will be first to market with the SP3 Solution Partner Program; CRN will provide more details when they become available in the next few months.

asia collaboration inspires networking samsung