Samsung's struggles in the mobile market, particularly in 2014, have been well documented. The company is feeling the pinch from Apple in the high-end segment while local rivals in emerging markets like China and India are also causing headaches for Samsung. Xiaomi is already believed to have overtaken Samsung as the largest smartphone vendor in China, a highly lucrative market, one that even Apple is focused on. What changed after 2013 when many had reached the conclusion that the smartphone wars were simply a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung? Business Insider reports in a new profile on the company that tensions between Samsung's US and Korean offices are to be blamed for the problems being faced by its mobile business.
“The Next Big Thing” media campaign was iconic in its own right. The campaign was launched in 2011 and it mocked Apple fans for lining up outside its stores while something much better was readily available, the Galaxy S2, its 4G support and big screen instantly set it apart from the iPhone 4S which had neither. By the end of 2012 Samsung's profits had surged 76% primarily because of the phenomenal growth registered by its mobile business, it become the most profitable part of the company, and widely became known as the only contender that could give Apple a run for its money in the smartphone market.
According to the profile Samsung Mobile's success in the US caused rifts with the company's headquarters in Korea. Sources tell the scribe that the more successful the company became in the US the more the distrust deepened between the two offices. Apparently the US team felt that they were being chastised for the work they work doing instead of being given credit.
Another source reveals that Samsung sent a plane full of executives to its mobile division's office in Dallas back in 2012 for an unannounced audit. Accusations of bribing the media and falsifying sales data were made. The audit didn't turn up anything but the perception didn't disappear from the headquarters in Korea that the US arm was up to no good. One meeting with the global teams at Samsung's headquarters in Korea is described in the profile where executives made the US team stand up in front of a few hundred of their peers inside an auditorium. Employees were told to clap for the US team as encouragement because they were said to be the only group that was failing the company, “even though it was clear to everyone that the opposite was true.”
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Enter 2014, a year that didn't bring much good news for Samsung's mobile business, with the Galaxy S5 not performing as well as the company might have hoped while it came under pressure from Xiaomi in China and other local manufacturers in markets like India. Now the company pegs its hope on the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, two new smartphones its going to unveil at Mobile World Congress 2015, with some fundamental changes in a bid to reignite growth for its mobile business.
Samsung declined to comment on the profile.
