Apple's Major Competitors: Samsung Electronics

Section 5.

One of Apple 's’ major competitors is Samsung Electronics. Samsung is a South Korean company that was founded initially as a trading company in 1938 by Lee Byung-chul. Since then the company has diversified into multiple markets including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Now however, Samsung is best known for its market share in the electronics industry which it entered in the 1960s which has become the company 's most important source of income (Samsung, 2017). Throughout the 1990s seen Samsung Electronics flourish in the mobile phone industry. This lead to them expanding globally and building factories in the US, Britain, Germany, Thailand, Mexico and China until 1997. The Asian financial crisis in 1997

In 1938, Lee Byung-chul setup Samsung Sanghoe, a successful trading company until he was forced to abandon his holdings in Seoul when the city was invaded by the cities communist north neighbour and Lee almost lost everything. Lee moved the business to Busan and started Samsung’s chaebol era. As a family ran business, Lee’s son, Kun-hee was the child who stood out the most and became in charge of the Samsung Corporation. A year after he officially joined the chaebol, Samsung Electronics was established with its first products being modest home appliances. Lee soon realised that the demand for Samsung 's electronic appliances were growing and that this could mean big things for Samsung. The main problem that faced Samsung was that they imported most of the components that went into finishing Samsung products. This proved to be costly, so to lower costs Lee chipped into his own pocket to buy Samsung Electronics own silicon company, an expensive move that paid off in the years to come. This lead to Samsung Electronics lowering production costs and building their brand globally with their inexpensive products. By the 1980s, even though Samsung Electronics had become a recognised exporter, foreign consumers often dismissed the Samsung brand due to

Their usual target age group is from people in their 20s to their 50s or even older once they have the ability to purchase and use the products. Much similar to Apple, teenagers to early adults are mostly technology savvy therefore are Samsung’s smartphone target market. An advantage to both Samsung and Apple is that this market is growing as they have a lot more spending power in recent years compared to the past. Adults are Samsungs largest target market because they have the greatest purchasing ability and Samsung can offer them a lot more such as, home appliances and smart televisions (Essay.uk.com, 2017).

5.6 Number employed.

Samsung employs a massive amount of people compared to Apple due to its broader product range.

As of 2015, Samsung employs over 350,000 people in 80 different countries. They have over 70,000 engineers in 34 research and development centres. They have 1,700 total designers in 6 design centres (News.Samsung, 2015).

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