Samsung to use smartphone success to expand tablet presence

If the length of press conference lineups at the Consumer Electronics Show are anything to go by, Samsung is one of the hottest gadget makers going right now.

On Monday, the South Korean company had to turn away hundreds of journalists who were hoping to catch a glimpse of its latest televisions, phones, tablets and appliances, simply because there wasnt enough space to accommodate them all.

The company used the event to claim market leadership in a number of product categories, including smartphones. Samsung Canada president James Politeski later sat down with CBC News to elaborate on the companys present and future in this country, as well as overall trends in the electronics business.

CBC News: Can you explain how Samsung calculates its leadership position in smartphones? Some numbers give that position to Apple.

James Politeski: The number we count is units, so 300 million phones [shipped] makes that the largest quantity of phones in the world, as measured by the various reported sources of information. We are the largest in units.

Q: And is that number reflective of Canada as well?

A: Yes, in 2011 we had a dramatic increase in our business [in Canada], more than two-and-a-half times the market share from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. In the last few weeks of 2011, from our industry sources, we were No. 1.

Q: One area in which Samsung hasnt done well is tablets. According to some estimates, Samsungs market share in Canada is in the low single digits. Whats happening for you there?

A: Last year was our start, our first foray into them. We obviously have an opportunity to grow that business. One of the concepts were focused on is walk-at-working so that when we talk about our tablet, we want the sales associates [in stores] to actually demonstrate how it works, get a Gmail account set up so you can connect to Android and download a couple of apps.

With the tablets playing off the success in phones, that momentum is also going to play through because the feel and the systems are very similar. As our smartphone business continues to dramatically expand, thats going to raise the tablet business.

Q: Theres talk that wireless carriers dont like Apple so theyve pushed Android phones, hence their success. But with tablets, people arent really buying data plans for them, so carriers arent pushing them. Are tablets a harder market as a result?

A: Everything we do has its elements of challenge to it, but having said that, theyre very different products. Phones are just that theyre communications devices. They have similar features, but tablets are mostly Wi-Fi, so its not so much that [carriers] arent interested in them, but theyre fitting a different profile in the marketplace.

I dont think its any harder for us, but whats attracting success for us is not only the operating system but the quality of the products. Whether its the quality of the screen, the battery life, the product speaks volumes for what you can expect for it. Android is catching on globally and locally, but really its the product that were most excited about.

Q: Theres a benefit to a person getting all of their gadgets TVs, tablets, phones and so on from one manufacturer, but its obviously unrealistic to expect many people to do that. How do you draw the line between making your products work better with each other and getting them to work with those of other manufacturers?

A: Wed obviously like people to have a full assortment of Samsung products, but practically speaking, that doesnt always happen because manufacturers are at different stages with different devices. The idea is there are some connectivity features that are seamless when its just Samsung products, but then there are examples where they just work within [a larger] ecosystem. So our ChatOn messaging app is an example its an app thats designed specifically for our stuff, but its going to work on all the other platforms as well. Its not just about focusing on what we have, its about offering the consumer choice, because thats what they want. Were not trying to pigeonhole what the consumer has to pick. Were saying, "You pick the best of what you want."

Q: Here at CES, were seeing a lot of companies, including Samsung, applying new interfaces such as gesture and voice recognition to things like TVs. Whats behind this move?

A: What you see here is a giant next step. This is not a small innovation, its a major change in how you interact with your TV and how it participates in your life. Weve talked about the connectivity between devices, but now were talking about connectivity between the human being and the TV. Youre going to see tremendous app and software development around this. As we unveil it here, it is new to the world, so its like a starters pistol.