Aspects Of Innovation In Samsung's Product Development Essay.

Write the Aspects of innovation for Samsung’s product development activities
 

Products sold by Samsung

Product innovation is a process through new products and services are launched into the market which has significant improvement with respect to its predecessor or the innovation of a completely new product. The improvements include the improved functional characteristics, technical specifications, component specifications and materials (Evanschitzky et al. 2012). The new product development is aa terms which are found in the business and engineering field and it covers the process and the procedures that are involved in bringing a new product into the market (Barczak and Kahn 2012). This study involves the study of the new product development and the innovation strategies which is implemented by Samsung. 

The different types of the products sold by Samsung that are in the different stages of the product life cycle assessment are Samsung smartphones and Samsung Smart TV (Products - Samsung Newsroom 2018).

Aspects of innovation for Samsung’s product development activities

Samsung was established in the year 1938 and was originally called Samsung Sanhoe by Lee- Byung. Samsung has now turned out to be the largest electronics company in the world and is also the largest manufacturer of mobile phones (Samsung Electronics 2018). The company has successfully placed itself as the best smartphone manufacturer and is also featured all over the media. A smartphone is a phone with advanced technological features and capabilities. These smartphones have the capability to combine the power of a computer operating system and also has the feasible feature of a hand-held device. The smartphones carry the features of a mobile device along with the added features of camera, music player. GPS, touchscreen interface and thus acts a personal digital assistant. The Samsung Galaxy is the exclusive line of phones that have the smartphone features and are introduced in the year 2010. These Galaxy phones come with the stylus and touch screen (Qian et al. 2012).

In order to maximise the commercial success, the Samsung company uses a mixture of the strategies like the target market, pricing strategies, promotional and the product strategies.

• Product- the Samsung smartphones are the slimmest phones in the market and it also provides the added feature of sophistication, simplicity, and comfort. All the different smartphones come with remarkable features and all the Galaxy smartphones are based on the Android. Android holds the greatest share in the market for the most used operating system (Irdindia.in 2018).
• Promotion- Samsung utilizes the different tools of promotion for the purpose of promoting its Galaxy line of smartphone. The promotional strategies include the outdoor media, internet social media, print advertising, television.
• Price- Samsung manufacturers one of the most affordable and the cost-effective phones that have a worldwide demand. The company has learnt that in order to stay ahead in the market as it has not allowed the Apple Inc. to grow in the market of the developing countries and Asia through its price policy. Another strategy employed by Samsung is the manufacturing of the wide range of products that have different sets of price ranges (Irdindia.in 2018).
• Place- Samsung uses a variety of distribution channels like the various types of carriers, Amazon (online retailer), internet partners and mobile phone retailers. Samsung also has the Samsung pop-up stores (Irdindia.in 2018).

The Samsung Galaxy phones during its life cycle encounter different bugs and errors in functioning. Thus it is important to mention that the smartphones are not just dependent on the physical attributes. The phones are immensely impacted by the software it carries within and it affects a phone's continuity, reliability and security. Hence, when the Samsung launches a new phone to the market, it has to take into account the various other aspects. Such aspects include the protection of the device and it thus the devices receive support from the manufacturers via the security and the firmware updates (Yang et al. 2015). Thus in order to minimize the risk and increase the product life cycle of the Galaxy smartphones, the company ensures to provide the phones with the latest software patches, security updates, firmware updates and the software updates. This helps in increasing the usability of the phone and minimizing the system failures. The other ways Samsung use to minimize the risks is to listen to the customer feedback and in case of replacing the products, the administrators try to replace the products when it hampers the workflow of the employees (Samsung Business Insights 2018).

Aspects of Innovation for Samsung’s product development activities

The marketing strategy of Samsung Smart TV- Samsung has a very logical marketing strategy with respect to the Smart TVs. The strategy includes the market segmentation, distribution of the product, placement of the product and pricing of the product.

• Distribution- through the authorized channel members, Samsung sells its products. The channels are used effectively for the purpose of distributing the products to the customers. According to the company, the channel members are vital because Samsung does not sell its products directly to the customers (Shin, Hwang and Choo 2013).
• Placements- the products are placed in the stores where there is a maximum willingness of the customers to buy. Samsung tries to not to place the products where the company will not find the customers for its customers.
• Marketing mix for the brand- Samsung has knowledge and idea of how to provide solutions and provide latest technologies into the LED TVs. The price set for the products clearly reveal that these products belong to the upper-class people and that are willing to pay (Shin, Hwang and Choo 2013).

The Samsung Smart TVs are vulnerable to the security threats and thus Samsung has taken a series of steps in order to keep the Smart TV secure. TVs that are connected to the internet have the inherent risk of getting infected with the virus, Trojan and ransomware. Thus a slew of measures taken up by the company includes the providing security solution at the platform stage, application stage and hardware stage. The platform stage includes the data encryption, detection of the malicious applications and providing a secure on-screen keyboard with security features.  The application stage includes the anti-malware engine that detects the malware, secures the device when it is connected to the internet, and protection of the network. The hardware stage includes the integration the hardware chip architecture that will prevent the data from getting leaked and the authentication features include that the TVs are operated through the Tizen Platform (News.samsung.com 2018).   

According to the Moore's Technological Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) when the Samsung galaxy first came to the market, it was one of the famous smartphones that were at that technologically advanced. Even before the company launched the phone, some of the customers ordered the product without even knowing its price. Thus, according to the technology adoption cycle are known as innovators. The early adopters are generally considered as the fastest respondents and the youth represent a majority of this section or the category. These are the people that the early risk takers so that they can adapt to the latest innovation and become the first users even though the price is high. The diffusion of innovation model suggested by Roger is divided into 5 steps (Cho, Hwang and Lee 2012). The process tends to explain the different stages of marketing and it includes various stages like adoption, trial, evaluation, interest and awareness. With respect to the technological adaption life cycle, the innovators usually skip few stages mentioned in the diffusion model. This starts with the trial stage and it includes the high-income people. Due to the high usage of internet, the newly launched phones takes less amount to spread. Thus companies like Samsung effectively use this framework in order to effectively target the customers for the sale of the products (Lee and Huh 2017).

Theoretical frameworks

Service innovation- since the year 1938 Samsung has been the world leader in the innovative products and is present in all aspect of life. The commitment of the company is seen within the product’s DNA of Samsung appliances. Samsung is the perfect example that can upgrade the builds and the helps a great deal in the building and closing deals. Pioneering the new ideas starts in the lab and it is easier to for the commitment and dedication. Samsung invests a lot of money into the research and development sector so that the newer technologies can be developed and that results into the better products and has also raised the number of patents in comparisons to the others. According to the Samsung, there are 42,000 technicians that are dedicated solely for the research and development department, 42 research facilities that are located all over the world, and 8500 patents granted all over in the year 2016. The home appliances innovated by Samsung are smart and it takes the whole house to a whole new level. There is a smart home app that allows the appliances to work together seamlessly and intelligently communicate the important alerts to the smartphone of the users which can be controlled remotely (Samsungbuilder.com 2018). 

Samsung enterprise is a global business entity and it is one of the main priority for Samsung and Samsung 360 services formed a platform which has led to the further growth. Especially in the United States, Samsung has the 35 percent of market share for the smartphones and it includes the business purchasers (Forbes 2018). Samsung enterprise maintains a commitment to provide enterprise safe products, solution and services. The Samsung 360 services are the core part that integrates all the Samsung products and the devices, services, solutions and securities. Samsung 360 services are the next big step that steps ups the evolutionary process and the Samsung's mission and it includes the service offerings, security, solution and product and this has continued to gain the momentum and strength over the past few years. The Samsung 360 services is an extension of the Samsung enterprise services and it acts to add more value to the security offering with respect to the Samsung solutions, products, Samsung solutions exchange and Samsung Knox. The vital part of the Samsung 360 services is that is the technology that leads the industry, innovation leadership and intellectual property. Thus, it is necessary for the Samsung to be an innovative company in order to make a continued persuasion for the innovative research and development of the products (Businesswire 2018).

Service innovation

Innovative companies like Samsung has shown the world that being innovative gives an advantage of gaining customers at a faster rate. The company a stresses a lot on the research and development of the products. Samsung is the world leader in terms of LED panels and monitors and holds the record on innovative the AMOLED and the OLED panels (Coffey 2017). These technologies provide Samsung with a competitive advantage over its market competitors. Bringing the technology and introducing the same into the market first also provides a pioneering effect and the company brings it receives the fruits of gaining the market competition prior to its other market competitors. There are other aspects of the performance of the company that can be analysed by the level of innovation that patents that a particular company is applying for. From this, it can be inferred that the company is innovative and will introduce products and technologies into the market for the customers (Ionescu and Dumitru 2015). 

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the new product development and the product innovation are the two vital part of any company that wants to become the market leader in the innovation. Samsung is one such example that has achieved the title of the most innovative company and is a market leader in terms of TVs and smartphones. This has not only affected its performance but also has increased its competitive advantage over its market competitors. companies like Samsung spend a lot of money on the research and development of its products and this has led to the innovative products that have changed how we interact with the home appliances. 

Reference

Barczak, G. and Kahn, K.B., 2012. Identifying new product development best practice. Business horizons, 55(3), pp.293-305.

Businesswire, 2018. Samsung Introduces Global Enterprise Services to Accelerate Business Innovation. [online] Businesswire. Available at: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20141007006106/en/Samsung-Introduces-Global-Enterprise-Services-Accelerate-Business [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Cho, Y., Hwang, J. and Lee, D., 2012. Identification of effective opinion leaders in the diffusion of technological innovation: A social network approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 79(1), pp.97-106.

Coffey, V.C., 2017. The Age of OLED Displays. Optics and Photonics News, 28(11), pp.34-41.

Evanschitzky, H., Eisend, M., Calantone, R.J. and Jiang, Y., 2012. Success factors of product innovation: An updated meta?analysis. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 29(S1), pp.21-37.

Forbes, 2018. Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/03/07/why-is-samsung-such-an-innovative-company/#1b343c702ad7 [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Ionescu, A. and Dumitru, N.R., 2015. The role of innovation in creating the company’s competitive advantage. Ecoforum Journal, 4(1), p.14.

Irdindia.in, 2018. [online] Irdindia.in. Available at: https://www.irdindia.in/journal_ijrdmr/pdf/vol5_iss2/9.pdf [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Lee, C.Y. and Huh, S.Y., 2017. Technology Forecasting Using a Diffusion Model Incorporating Replacement Purchases. Sustainability, 9(6), p.1038.

News.samsung.com, 2018. What Samsung Is Doing to Keep Your Smart TV Secure. [online] News.samsung.com. Available at: https://news.samsung.com/global/what-samsung-is-doing-to-keep-your-smart-tv-secure [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Products - Samsung Newsroom, 2018. Products - Samsung Newsroom. [online] Samsung Newsroom. Available at: https://news.samsung.com/us/category/products/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Qian, F., Quah, K.S., Huang, J., Erman, J., Gerber, A., Mao, Z., Sen, S. and Spatscheck, O., 2012, June. Web caching on smartphones: ideal vs. reality. In Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Mobile systems, applications, and services (pp. 127-140). ACM.

Samsung Business Insights, 2018. Understanding the Product Life Cycle of a Smartphone. [online] Samsung Business Insights. Available at: https://insights.samsung.com/2017/11/22/understanding-the-product-life-cycle-of-a-smartphone/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Samsung Electronics, 2018. About Samsung for Business | Samsung Business. [online] Samsung Electronics America. Available at: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/about-us/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Samsungbuilder.com, 2018. Product Innovation | Samsung. [online] Samsungbuilder.com. Available at: https://samsungbuilder.com/innovation [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

Shin, D.H., Hwang, Y. and Choo, H., 2013. Smart TV: are they really smart in interacting with people? Understanding the interactivity of Korean Smart TV. Behaviour & information technology, 32(2), pp.156-172.

Yang, S.J., Choi, J.H., Kim, K.B. and Chang, T., 2015. New acquisition method based on firmware update protocols for Android smartphones. Digital Investigation, 14, pp.S68-S76.