To call what Samsung has managed to do in the mobile world a success would be an understatement. The company was making smartphones well before Apple ever uttered the word iPhone, but once Apple entered the market it stole the show from all the big players at the time. Samsung was one of those companies that felt the effect of the iPhone and it soon planned to not only compete better with Apple, it was going to top Apple.
Samsung entered the smartphone market with the Samsung SPH-i700 in 2004, three years before the world would see the iPhone. The smartphone ran Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition OS. The smartphone ran on Verizon Wireless and was the first Pocket PC based device to include a digital camera. It was the first sign that Samsung was serious about being a viable player in the smartphone world. It showed off its innovative ways back then with the inclusion of a digital camera, a simple but killer feature at the time.
When Apple unveiled the iPhone in 2007 it shook up the mobile world. It didn't offer third party apps initially, and was competing with BlackBerry, Microsoft, Symbian, and Palm OS at the time. Android didn't even exist until the first Android smartphone; the HTC built T-Mobile G1 shipped in October 2008. Apple's iPhone would become the king of the smartphone world until Samsung decided to form a plan to knock Apple out of the top spot; the plan was based on trying to be more innovative than Apple. At the time no one would ever predict that Apple would eventually take a back seat to Samsung.
Samsung decided to pour more money in R&D of its Android smartphones to overtake Apple. The first smartphone to really benefit from Samsung's new strategy was the original Galaxy S smartphone released in June 2010 and by January 2011 Samsung announced it had sold over 10 million Galaxy S smartphones. Samsung kept innovating and more consumers were flocking to Samsung Android smartphones than any other Android licensee. Samsung wasn't only toppling its rivals in the Android world, the folks in Cupertino were also aware that Samsung wasn't gunning to be the king of Android, it wanted Apple's title as well. Samsung would eventually innovate even more with the Galaxy S2, and its Galaxy S3 would be the smartphone that would strip Apple from being the top smartphone maker.
The Galaxy S3 was a huge success because of the innovative features Samsung added to Android, not Google. iPhone users were leaving iOS and buying a Samsung Galaxy S3 because it offered more features than Apple's very successful iPhone 5. It seemed that the success began to cloud Samsung's judgment and it began to lose focus and spend billions more on its image than research and development. Samsung spent a record $11.6 billion on marketing last year, and that's reportedly $1.3 billion more than it spent on R&D. That's not a good sign.
A clear example of Samsung spending more on marketing than R&D was when the company rented out Radio City Music Hall and Time Square's Jumbotron to put on its Galaxy S4 event. The event was seen as a joke to many in the tech world. Samsung spent money on tap dancers, theatrics, and more to unveil the Galaxy S4. While many were impressed with the Galaxy S4, it didn't receive the same reactions in the press when Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S3. Some analysts believed the Galaxy S4 didn't offer enough of a compelling reason to upgrade from a Galaxy S3.
The company recently announced that it will not post record quarterly earnings for the first time since 2011, and the reason seems to be that it is spending billions on a marketing blitz for the Galaxy S4. Let's hope that Samsung will start spending money on what matters. This new plan veers off of what worked in becoming he number one smartphone maker in the world. Samsung got there because of innovation, not image. Get back to what you're good at Samsung, innovating. It only takes one huge serious misstep like this to make you realize innovation always beats hype. You should know!
