Samsung takes on Apple, Sony, the world

Not long ago, it was widely speculated that the fight for dominance in home entertainment products might come down to Apple vs. Sony, a reflection of the larger clash between computer manufacturers and consumer electronics makers in a world of rapidly converging digital technologies.

Now, the smart money may be betting on a brand that had been associated with cheap analog products for decades: Samsung. The South Korean conglomerate, which previously had been known for producing such commodity items as bargain-basement microwaves, today is entering markets ranging from to . And, unlike such , Samsung can easily finance ambitious expansion plans as it reaps 20 percent profits of $2.2 billion from the last quarter alone, driven by its booming businesses in flat-screen panels, phone handsets and flash chips.

Emboldened by this success, Samsung it is even daring to go --taking on the taking on the vaunted iPod. Regardless of how it fares in the music realm, the Samsung nameplate may well be on its way to the kind of ubiquity Sony enjoyed in happier times.

Blog community response:

"Samsung Electronics Co. topped US$100 billion in market value, one of only four Asian companies to do so. Samsung is now second in size to Vodafone Group PLC among non-US technology stocks and has overtaken Finland's Nokia, Motorola and Japan's Sony. That's a pretty impressive feat for a company which had its humble beginnings as a maker of black and white TVs."
--HodgePodge I Am

"If Samsung thinks they can beat Apple in their market by producing multifunction devices that are outdated two weeks after people buy them and running the company into bankruptcy while advertising the hell out of them, one thing's for sure. We wonÂ’t see a whole lot of Samsung MP3 players on people's hips come this spring."
--insignificant thoughts

"It used to be that Japanese companies only made alliances with each other--while at the same time fighting tooth and nail for competitive advantage. But now we have a Japanese company--Sony, no less--that has gone outside of 'the family' with its alliance with South Korea's Samsung over flat-panel display technology. (It's also funny how Samsung has passed Sony as a favored consumer brand--something unheard of just a few short years ago.)"
--VoIP and Gadgets Blog