Samsung Gives Up On The Japanese Consumer

[Mulboyne]

AP: Samsung stops selling consumer electronics in Japan, citing poor profitability
Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it had stopped selling flat panel televisions and other consumer products in Japan, citing poor profitability. Samsung has emerged in the past decade and a half as a global giant in consumer electronics, taking on and even beating Japanese rivals in places such as the United States and Europe. But penetrating the competitive Japanese consumer market, home to rivals such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Sony Corp. and Sharp Corp., appears to have been a considerable challenge...Samsung sold LCD TVs, DVD players, MP3 music players and other items in Japan via the Internet, but stopped at the end of October, Lee said. It had ceased sales in retail outlets in August last year, she said...more...

[GuyJean]

.. Samsung sold LCD TVs, DVD players, MP3 music players and other items in Japan via the Internet, but stopped at the end of October..

Yeah, Sharp LCDs are hard to beat these days.. And about as cheap as Samsung.. But didn't Sharp use Samsung screens at once? Or, maybe it was Sony..

GJ

[Takechanpoo]

Not only samsung's J-branch office but also the other Kimchese company's J-branch offices have functioned as agent spying J-technology so far.
But recently Kimchi dudes changed their way to spying J-tech, which way is to employ retired J-engineer as a agent. Thus Samsung's J-branch office is already no worth.

[IkemenTommy]

Not only samsung's J-branch office but also the other Kimchese company's J-branch offices have functioned as agent spying J-technology so far.
But recently Kimchi dudes changed their way to spying J-tech, which way is to employ retired J-engineer as a agent. Thus Samsung's J-branch office is already no worth.

Haha! LoL! Thanks for the laugh, Takechan!
Actually, you brought up a good point as Korean firms are quickly scouting Japanese engineers. Call it the Japanese abduction if you will. Koreans have the economic power right now with loads of cash. One example is Samsung bringing in Pentax employees because they can outpay their current salary in Japan, and live the high life in Korea where the cost of living is way lower than Japan.

But seriously, I have never seen any Samsung products in Japan. It might be a smart move to pull out and focus more on other parts of Asia and especially Europe where sales have been pretty good for them. The market size of Japan is nothing compared to North America or Europe.

Sharp controls a dominating market share in Japan for LCDs, but they are not a recognized brand outside of Japan. Brand recognition is where Sharp suffers outside of Japan.

[Jack]

But seriously, I have never seen any Samsung products in Japan. It might be a smart move to pull out and focus more on other parts of Asia and especially Europe where sales have been pretty good for them. The market size of Japan is nothing compared to North America or Europe.

Sharp controls a dominating market share in Japan for LCDs, but they are not a recognized brand outside of Japan. Brand recognition is where Sharp suffers outside of Japan.

Yes, Samsung is killing Sony in foreign markets. By the way, Sharp's reputation is fast building in the LCD TV market. Many around me when talking about LCD technology they mention that Sharp is the best brand.

[Choeki]

I've seen a lot more LG (Lucky Goldstar) products than Samsung in Japan, but I've also noticed that the LG products are a bit cheaper than Japanese versions of the same product, and moreso on the used market. This is regardless of the item being an LCD or plasma TV, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.

However, there's a bit of an open secret regarding the success of Korean companies - a lot of the capital comes from the US. Apparently the primary beneficiaries of the success of South Korean companies are American investors, rather than South Korean chaebol board members.

[FG Lurker]

One example is Samsung bringing in Pentax employees

Pentax and Samsung have a technology tie-up. Pentax has licensed their SLR mount to Samsung and is providing lenses. Samsung is in turn providing electronics to Pentax. I don't imagine Samsung is poaching too many Pentax employees, though an exchange of employees for training etc would make sense.

But seriously, I have never seen any Samsung products in Japan.

Samsung make great flat panels for computer displays, I bought a bunch of them a few years ago for the company. Many of the top end Dell displays use Samsung panels and Apple has used them (and LG) on and off as well. Samsung memory (both DRAM and flash) is top-tier stuff, as good or better than any other brand on the market. Samsung also make some pretty cool phones but they have never done well here.

It might be a smart move to pull out and focus more on other parts of Asia and especially Europe where sales have been pretty good for them. The market size of Japan is nothing compared to North America or Europe.

I'm not sure if it is a smart long-term move or not. Japan is a tough market for foreign (electronic) brands to crack but is a huge consumer market that is very close to Korea... I think they should have stayed but invested a lot more money in consumer marketing.

Sharp controls a dominating market share in Japan for LCDs

For LCD TVs, yes. For LCDs used in other products, no.

[Mulboyne]

The lights go out today on Samsung's prizewinning display at Shibuya crossing. It's been up since 2002 when Korea-Japan jointly hosted the World Cup but the cancellation of the contract represents the final step in the electronic giant's withdrawal from the Japanese consumer market.

[Mulboyne]

Poor Japanese sales prompt Hyundai pullout

Hyundai Motor Co of South Korea has said it will pull out of the Japanese passenger vehicle market because of slow sales. Hyundai, South Korea's number one automaker, has sold only about 15,000 passenger cars in Japan since 2001. The firm has said it will now focus on commercial vehicle sales. Hyundai management has said if the Japanese passenger auto market improves, it could resume car sales there. While Hyundai's sales were sluggish in Japan, the firm said its global auto sales in the third quarter surged 41 percent.

[sublight]

Yeah, Sharp LCDs are hard to beat these days.. And about as cheap as Samsung.. But didn't Sharp use Samsung screens at once? Or, maybe it was Sony..

GJ

Sony's Bravia TV was made (at least in part) by Samsung at first, but now Sony has tied up with someone else.

[Mulboyne]