CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction to Company

1. Nature of Business
2. Type & ownership Pattern
3. Organizational Structure
4. Production Lay out
5. Organisational Policies

Chapter 2: Industrial Analysis

1. Industry Overview –(Growth rate of Industry, Contribution to GDP)

2. Current Issues (From Newspaper, Journals –For Company and Industry)
3. Key Competitors
4. Environmental Scanning –Political environment, Economic environment, Socio-Cultural
Environment, technological environment, environmental issues (Green environment) and
Legal environment.
5. Porters five forces model of competition –Michael Porter

Chapter 3: Marketing Strategies

1. Products of Company
2. 4 Ps (Product: Price, Place & Promotion)
3. STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning)
4. Distribution Channels
5. Promotion Strategies

Chapter 4: Financial Analysis

1. Sources of Finance
2. Ratio Analysis –Any 5
3. Net Profit/ Balance sheet (from annual report) -Analyse

Chapter 5: Key Learning’s from the Company and

Recommendations

1. Performance Analysis of the Company

2. Reasons for the expansion/contraction/diversification of Company
3. Comment on Organizational Leadership
4. Market share/growth rate of Company
5. SWOT Analysis of the Company
Chapter 6: Findings

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Chapter 7: Conclusions and Suggestions

Bibliography

Chapter-1
Introduction to Company
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KEY FACTS
 Data founded: 1938
 Chairman (Since 1987): Kum-Hee Lee
 Founder: Byung-Chull Lee (1910-1987)
 Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea
 Global Operations: 285 Offices and facilities in 67 Countries
 Main Business Sectors: Electronics, Finance, and Trade and Services
 Number of Employees: 173,000 worldwide
 Number of listed companies within the group: 14
 Listed Companies:

 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

 Samsung SDI Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Techwin Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Securities Co. Ltd.
 Samsung Engineering Co. Ltd.
 Cheil Industries Inc.
 The Shilla Hotels and Resorts Co. Ltd.
 Cheil Communication Inc.
 SI Corporation

Samsung Group, based in Seoul, is South Korea’s largest business group. The
multinational conglomerate contains numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses,
most of them under the Samsung brand.

Here are key dates in the company’s history:

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1938: Samsung is founded by Lee Byung-chull as a trading company.

1953: After the Korean War, Lee forms profitable Cheil Sugar, which is followed by
textile, banking and insurance enterprises.

1961: Despite a political coup, charges against Lee of illegal profiteering and a 1966
family scandal of smuggling, the company grows by diversifying into paper products,
department stores and publishing.

1969: Lee, with the help of Sanyo, establishes Samsung Electronics. It produces
inexpensive TVs, microwave ovens and other consumer products for Western
companies such as Sears and General Electric.

1970s: Under a government policy of rapid industrialization, Samsung launches a

number of enterprises in ship building, petrochemicals and aircraft engines.

1980s: The company is exporting electronics under its own name.

1983: Samsung begins production of personal computers.

1987: Lee’s son, Lee Kun-hee, assumes control of Samsung.

1988: Samsung Semiconductor and Telecommunications merges with Samsung

Electronics. Its core business focus is home appliances, telecommunications and
semiconductors.

1990: Samsung becomes a world leader in chip production.

1994: Samsung Motors is formed.

1996: Lee Kun-hee is involved in a corruption scandal and gets a suspended sentence
for bribery.

1998: Samsung completes the development of flat-screen televisions and begins the
first mass production of digital TVs. Samsung Motors delivers its first cars.

2005: Samsung develops the first speech-recognition phone.

2007: Samsung Group is accused of political bribery and influence-peddling

throughout the South Korean government, judicial branch and the media.

2012: Samsung Electronics becomes world’s largest mobile phone-maker by unit

sales, overtaking Nokia, the market leader. U.S. jurors rule Samsung must pay Apple
(AAPL) $1.05 billion in damages for violating six Apple patents on smartphone
technology.

1. Nature of Business

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Samsung Electronics is the world’s largest consumer electronics company. Producing
everything from phones, TVs, cameras and laptops to microwaves and freezers, it is a
top three brand in pretty much every category in which it is active. 2010 sales were in
excess of $135 billion with net profits of over $14 billion. Samsung Electronics is
now twice the size of Sony, the company which 20 years ago was the undisputed
leader in the sector.

The company is part of the larger $200 billion revenue Samsung Group that accounts
for a fifth of Korea’s exports. Samsung has become the flagship of the South Korean
economy and the source of much of the innovation that is taking place across the
consumer electronics sector. Given that it was a low-cost me-too manufacturer of
imitations of Sharp’s microwaves in the 1970s this is a huge achievement. Pivotal to
Samsung Electronics’ success over the past decade or so has been the way it has
embraced design as the source of competition. Growing from 2 to 900, the Samsung
Electronics design team now consistently takes most awards at the prestigious annual
design events as the company’s products are time and time again seen as leading the
category in performance, quality, and value.

While design has become an important part of the success, Samsung Electronics is a
vertically integrated hardware company: it makes the product and pretty much every
component that goes in it. And this means that Samsung Electronics is first and
foremost a technology company. Samsung Electronics’ component business is the
leading producer of many of the best technologies: whether it is memory, integrated
circuits, storage, or LCD panels Samsung Electronics makes great products. And it
doesn’t just make them for use in Samsung products – most of its competitors’
products also source their components from Samsung Electronics. Whether you buy a
Samsung or another brand, chances are you are still buying Samsung Electronics’
technology and this brings efficiencies of scale and cost to Samsung over their
competition.

Samsung Electronics have made a major success of product design, but this has not
been done in isolation of great technology. As with Audi, it has been the increasingly
close and symbiotic relationship between the engineering and the aesthetic design that
has made the brands stand out more from the crowd.

Going forward, a big challenge for Samsung Electronics will be to utilise its
competences in design, technology and integrated processes to continue pushing the
technological boundaries, competing on quality with its Asian peers, and producing
the products that the vast majority of the world’s consumers clearly want to buy.
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2. Type & ownership Pattern
 MUTUAL FUND OWNERSHIP

Mutual Fund Name Shares Held %Outstanding

(% Change)

VA College America Euro Pacific 2,038,471(4.87) 1.49

Growth

Vanguard Total Intl Stock Idx 1,259,486(1.42) 0.92

Fund

VA College America Cap World 1,176,233(7.95) 0.86

Gr and Inc.

Dodge & Cox International 1,173,643(-8.59) 0.79

Stock Fund

Samsung KODEX 200 ETF 761,598(13.29) 0.56

iShares MSCI Emerging 743,060(0.00) 0.57

Markets (AU)

iShares Core MSCI Emerging 735,928(0.00) 0.53

Markets

VA College America Growth 713,600(2.87) 0.52

Fund of America

DFA Emerging Markets Core 475,015(0.00) 0.35

Equity Fund

Vanguard Developed Markets 461,554(-0.13) 0.34

Index Fund

VA College America Invmt Co 461,554(-0.13) 0.34

of America

VA College America New 428,488(0.00) 0.31

Perspective

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iShares MSCI South Korea 422,119(0.00) 0.32

Capped (AU)

Oppenheimer Developing 367,582(52.39) 0.27

Markets Fund

MiraeAsset TIGER 200 ETF 349,739(37.13) 0.26

 INSTUTATIONAL OWNERSHIP

Institution Name Shares Held % Outstanding

(% Change)

Capital Research and 6,243,815(+4.35%) 4.58

Management Company

BlackRock Fund Advisors 2,199,735(+0.06%) 1.66

Vanguard Group Inc 2,063,137(+0.67%) 1.50

Dodge & Cox 1,288,271(-8.32%) 0.86

Samsung Asset Management 1,130,232(+11.00%) 0.83

Co Ltd

Mirae Asset Global Investments 665,759(+21.05%) 0.49

Co Ltd

T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. 641,307(+4.39%) 0.47

BlackRock Advisors (UK) Limited 627,718(-0.21%) 0.48

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP 606,426(+0.72%) 0.45

Artisan Partners Limited 571,332(-1.86%) 0.42

Partnership

Templeton Global Advisors 453,055(-9.94%) 0.33

Limited

OFI Global Asset 425,121(+54.68%) 0.31

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Management, Inc.

Korea Investment 328,467(+1.35%) 0.24

Management Co., Ltd

Franklin Mutual Advisers, LL 316,723(+0.05%) 0.23

Fidelity Management &

Research Company 304,679(+2.75%) 0.22

3. Organizational Structure

Samsung was named by Lee Byung-chul, founder of Samsung Electronics when he

established the Samsung Trading Company on March, 1938. Sam in Samsung is
defined as strong, abundant and big; while "Sung" means high and bright.
Interestingly, Samsung's origin was not involving electronics. Initially, Chairman Lee
set up a trade export company in Korea that sold fish, vegetables, and fruit to China.
Start from 1958, Samsung began to expand into other industries such as media,
financial, ship building and chemicals and Samsung Electronics was established under
subsidiary of Samsung Group in 1969. The company then expanded to semiconductor
business and became the first chip-making facilities in the country during that time.
Samsung Electronics focused on four areas which are digital media, semiconductor,
telecommunication network and LCD digital appliances. In 1993, the "lightest"
mobile phone of its era was developed. Finally, it surpassed Sony to become world's

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twentieth-largest and most popular brand. Samsung was the world's largest
manufacturer of OLEDs with 40% market share worlds wide and 90% share of global
AMOLED market. More than 600 American patents and 2800 international patent are
owned by Samsung Electronics in 2006 that makes it as the largest owner of
AMOLED technology patents. The company also became the second-largest mobile-
phone maker beating Motorola in 2007 for the first time. In 2009, it became world's
largest technology company overtaking Hewlett-Packard measure by sales. In 2010, it
produces 30 nm-class DRAMs and 20 nm-class NAND flashes which were the first
time in the world. At 2011, it is the world's largest mobile phone maker and second-
largest semiconductor chip maker. Samsung Electronics became the largest
smartphone vendor due to sales of Galaxy SII and Galaxy Note devices.

Contents:

Mechanistic organization is a bureaucratic organization which adheres to the chain-of-

command principle, with each person controlled and supervised by one superior. The
structure of this organization is taller than organic organization. Also, many rules are
developed and the decision making process is centralized. Each employee has fixed
duties and the communication channels are formalized in such rigid hierarchical
relationship.

Samsung Electronics is a type of mechanistic organizational structure because it has

rigid hierarchical relationships.

Employees have their fixed duties in respective department. For instance, employees
who are specialized in producing chips are working under chips manufacturer
whereas employees who are highly skilled in producing mobile phones are working
under mobile phone manufacturer. All of the powerful authorities are held by the top
management of the company which is Lee Kun Hee , the chairman of the Samsung
Electronics with the help of the Office of Secretaries and sometimes referred to as
"emperor management" or "dictatorship". Office of Secretaries helped chairman to
control and direct the individual affiliates. Their main function are finance and
accounting, auditing, planning, public relations, and human resource management,
including the hiring and firing of all executives within the organization. Even the
important strategic decision and sizable investment decision have to be examined by
the office first. The percentage of decision made by the chairman is 20%; by Office of
Secretaries is 40%; by affiliate presidents is 40%. In other word, all of the important
decisions are decided by the chairman, Office of Secretaries and affiliate presidents.
As such, Samsung Electronics implement centralized decision authority.

The communication channel of Samsung Electronics is formalized. Formalization

describes how an organization's jobs are standardized and the extent to which
employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures. This element makes the process
of succession routine and regular. Thus, there will be minimal disturbance to an
organization function if there are people being replaced. In Samsung, the personnel

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function is under CFO while CFO reports to and receives orders from CEO. For
instance, when the company needs to make an investment, the proposal is written by
the related business unit. Then, the proposal is reviewed by the finance department,
which is then passed to finance team of Office of Secretaries after CFO reports the
proposal to CEO. Finally, the proposal is approved by Office of Secretaries and
Chairman.

Many rules could be found in Samsung Electronics and this match with the
characteristic of mechanistic organization. According to Samsung Electronics Global
Code of Conduct, all the employees should follow the codes and the business
principles to comply with laws and ethical practices as well as to express their
commitment to social responsibility. (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. [SECL], 2006)
The global code of conduct is served as behavioral guidelines and judgmental
standards for the employees, which encompass the elimination of nationality or
gender discrimination, transparent disclosure of business information, customer
information protection and partner collaboration. For example, according to principle
2-2-2 from the Global Code of Conduct, the company will ensure that any proprietary
information acquired through its business activities shall be recorded and safely kept
and managed as intellectual property. In 2011, zero-tolerance principle was declared
in all cases of misconduct and unethical business on "Law Day". All employees and
executives have to sign a pledge of compliance to agree of taking responsibility for
any violation or misconduct.

Planning:

Planning includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to

coordinate activities. In Samsung, their vision is set by the top management that is
"Inspire the world, create the future". This vision 2020 shows that their commitment
in inspiring the world by improving their three key strengths which are "New
Technology", "Innovative Products", "Creative Solutions" and also promotes
Samsung Electronics' core network which are industry, partners and employees with
the effort to contribute a better world and with lot of experiences for all. Besides,
Samsung also aims to achieve one of the top five brands in the world by 2020 and
established three strategic approaches in management which are creativity,
partnership and talent.

Leading:

Leading includes motivating employees, directing the activities of others, selecting

the most effective communication channel, and resolving conflicts. Office of
Secretaries takes the leading role in Samsung as they carry out coordination whenever
there are conflicts happen. However, the synergies may be created via involuntary
cooperation or fiat as the business units have to accept its resolution. Also, the
Secretarial Offices spread company philosophy and improve business coordination
and information, which are shared among affiliates. The employees of this company

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are motivated by the philosophy of living by strong values is the key to good business.
Those values encompass people, excellence, Change, integrity and co-prosperity,
together with the Samsung code of conduct are the radical for them to make every
decision.

Organizing:

Organizing includes determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how
the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and who will make the decisions.
Samsung Electronics has a strong business division structure that is managed
independently by business unit managers. The company is divided into five sectors,
which are Digital Media, Semiconductors, Telecommunications, Digital Appliances
and LCDs. Within these sectors, there are 13 Global Business Managers (GBM) who
responsible to organize the firm along major product divisions in terms of personnel,
sales, and production within their respective divisions. Employees are divided
according to their specialize and skills into different tasks to increase work output.
Any proposal of investment that is written by GBM should be reviewed by the finance
department, followed by CFO. Then, CFO reports to CEO. Finally, the proposal is
approved by Office of Secretaries and Chairman.

Controlling:

Controlling includes monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and correcting

any significant deviations. In Samsung, the overall performances of BOD, CEO and
employees are controlled by Audit Committee, which has a broad range of audit right
from top to bottom. ("Ethics Management", 1995-2008) For example, they have the
right to inquire about financial reports from the BOD and employees at any time, the
right to claim to suspend illegal activity of the company BOD member, the right to
call a general shareholders' meeting and so on. There are also separate audit teams
that under the direct control of CEO with the responsible of encouraging employees to
adhere to the practice of management by ethics. ("Ethics Management", 1995-2008)

A) What seem to be the most important things leading to the success of the Samsung
Electronics?

To be successful, Samsung Electronics is going global. Samsung Electronics is

pushing the Galaxy S smartphone to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPhone and narrow the
gap with leader Nokia Oyj. It helped Samsung Electronics quadruple annual revenue
to139 trillion won ($ 116 million) in the 10 years that ended in 2009. Samsung
Electronics shares rose 10-fold during that time.

Also, Samsung Electronics has the good planning skills as they able to see the
business opportunity in the industry and set the particular goals to pursue. They able
to spot the areas, which are small but growing fast.Such areas that spotted by
Samsung are capital-intensive. Thus, it is difficult for their rivals to keep up. First,
Samsung will tiptoe into the technology in the industry to get familiar with it. Then,

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they will wait for the suitable moment that the 'window of opportunity' opens. For
example, in 2001, Samsung catch the opportunity of rapid growth of the liquid-crystal
displays that cause the dive of the price. They turned the liquid-crystal displays into
televisions.

Samsung Electronics is innovative in software and David Yoffie, a professor at

Havard Business School in Boston said "Leading radical innovation in the technology
world today requires strength in software, not just hardware." Samsung Electronics
has grown by studying their rivals to improve manufacturing and design. Samsung
electronics also hired a group of Japanese Design Consultant to evaluate Samsung
designers. Besides, their experienced designers are sent to work abroad in diverse
industries. By doing this, Samsung design strategy could involve several initiatives
and they began to implement a global brand communication strategy. As new
technologies are being constantly introduced to the market, Samsung engineers strive
to understand what customers need ahead of competitors and adjust their thinking to
develop original and innovative products that will meet those needs as well as new
technologies to lead the future market. Thus, the new markets had pioneered
continuously by them.

B) What do you see as the major challenges facing by Samsung Electronics over the
next five years?

The major challenge that will be faced by Samsung Electronics over the next five
years is how to build a stronger and better global brand. This is why the Samsung's
global marketing director need to assess in how to build the global brand reputation of
the company further and upgrade the company's worldwide brand image to compete
with Apple brand which has dominated the market share especially in Western
Europe. The challenge of Samsung's marketing director is the branding strategies in
global markets and the marketing team has to examine the organizational dynamics to
develop a stronger global brand that recognized by worldwide.

Another challenge that will be faced by Samsung Electronics is the competition over
the market share especially in smart phone. In this fast paced economic conditions,
Samsung need to continue produce more and more of the smart phone with improved
version and attractive design to meet with the rapid economic growth. The company
needs to invest and introduce more of the new technology and incorporate the
software and application into the new gadgets so that it will not lose out to another
competitor. Innovation and creativity are important in this to attract the gadget lover
and if the company fails to come out with a new and appealing product, they will be
overcome by another competitor such as Apple, HTC or Nokia.

Findings:

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Samsung electronics have a centralized structure making the top management own the
authorities and powers over all the important decisions. This make the decision
making process fast and swift and can carry out quickly. In this way, organization is
more efficient as implementation of any plans, ideas or policies can be carried out
quickly without any delay and this is very important especially to deal with the fast
paced economic and competition in market. This is supported by a study in journal by
Choong Y.Lee. However, overly centralization in organization is also not good for the
company. All of the important decisions are made by the top management while the
middle and first line management cannot voice out their opinions but to follow the
order of the top. If the decision made by the top management is incorrect, it can affect
the company business and thus lowering the company profits. Therefore, a good
leadership is important to lead the company. This is supported by the professor Chang
Sea-Jin which stated there is no guarantee that good leader will sustain and even they
can make mistake as well in his book review.

Samsung Electronics are having hierarchical management structure which reflects the
importance of seniority in the Korean culture. The hierarchical structure brings
synergy when things are going well but could potentially be disastrous if one part of
the process goes away from planned. This is supported by Professor John Kotter in his
article "Havard Business Review" that hierarchical organizational are often inflexible.
Hierarchical organization work in standardized processes but does not useful in
dynamic environments. They are slow to react to new opportunities, which often
require transformative change.

Also, according to researchers G.M. Stalker and T. Burns, mechanistic organizations

use hierarchical top-down structures while organic organizations use more flexible
structures and work best in fluid and unpredictable business climates. A Organic
structures depend on personal interactions rather than a formal chain of command that
allow the organization to respond quickly and effectively to changing circumstances
in ways that the hierarchical structure cannot. Samsung Electronics should make it
business to understand such structure so that it can have the benefits of both.

Samsung Electronics has many rules and regulations that are governed by the top
managers of the organization. When the top managers are unable to control the lower-
level activities, they themselves will substitute the rules and regulations. Since they
have the authority to hire and fire the executives and employees in the organization
anytime, the employees have to accept the tasks given by the managers and follow
whatever they said. Employees are constantly observed and monitored by top
managers during their working period to ensure that they are not making any mistakes
or violating the rules. Consequently, fatigue are accumulated when employees are
working under such great pressures that known as organizational fatigue.

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Moreover, employees of Samsung Electronics have to comply the Global Code of
Conduct, which consists of a number of principles. (SECL, 2006) For instance, under
principle 1-4-1, it stated that 'employees shall not attribute their personal political
opinions and conduct to the company, or cause such opinions or conduct to be
attributed to the company'. Besides, principle 2-4-3 showed that 'the company will not
allow its officers and employees, while in office, to act as number of boards of
company with conflicts of interest or participate in competitive business activities.'
(SECL, 2006) There are still a large amount of rules and principles that the employees
should comply with and that can be referred from the Global Code of Conduct, 2006.

The management of Samsung Electronics is known as 'fear-based management'. The

employees have to be loyal to their company in order to stay in the company.
However, organizational fatigue will bring negative effects to the company. If the
employees or executives are dismissed against their wills for any reasons by the top
managers such as the chairman or the Office of Secretaries, their anger will lead to
their betrayal and loss their loyalty.There were several cases on which the employees
of Samsung Electronics tried to sell the proprietary technologies to Samsung's
competitors and to other companies.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, Samsung Electronics has a mechanistic organizational structure as it has

rigid hierarchical relationships and tall organizational structure. In the company, each
employee has fixed duties and they have to follow lots of rules. Also, the decision
making process is centralized and the communication channel is formalized. In
Samsung, the goals or visions are planned by the top management. Office of
Secretaries takes the leading role as they responsible to solve the conflicts as well as
help the chairman to control and direct the individual affiliates. Besides, they also
spread the company philosophy to motivate the employees. Samsung Electronics is
divided into Digital Media, Semiconductors, Telecommunications, Digital Appliances
and LCDs, which are managed by business unit managers. The overall performances
of Samsung Electronics organization are controlled by Audit Committee.

In this assignment, we have learned the characteristics of the two types of

organizational structures, which are mechanistic organization and organic
organization that concern the work specialization, departmentalization, authority and
responsible, centralization and decentralization, span of control and formalization.
After analyzing these factors and searching all the related information of Samsung
Electronics, we could conclude that this company is a mechanistic organization. Thus,
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our analyzing ability could be strengthen when carry out this assignment. Besides, we
have a better understanding to recognize and differentiate these two organization
models. Furthermore, more knowledge about this company could be gained during the
research.

4. Production Lay out

When Samsung released its first Galaxy phone back in 2009, it was clear that the
company would become a contender in the revitalized smartphone market. When it
released the first Galaxy Note smartphone two years later in 2011, it was clear that
Samsung wasn’t afraid to take chances. And when Samsung released the Galaxy S4 in
2013, it was clear that the company’s displays would be the best in the industry for
years to come.

But something else was clear during all that time. Despite Samsung’s willingness to
take countless pages out of Apple’s playbook, the company’s hardware designs were
still sorely lacking. The look of Samsung’s phones was boring. The thin plastic backs
felt cheap and flimsy. Long story short, Samsung smartphones looked and felt like
cheap iPhone knockoffs.

Now, in 2017, the new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ mark a changing of the guard. The
torch has been passed. The student has become the teacher. Call it whatever you want,
but the bottom line is this: Samsung has out-designed Apple with its new flagship
smartphones. They look and feel like the future, and Apple’s three-year-old iPhone
design is stuck in the past.

Samsung’s transition began in 2015 when the company released the Galaxy S6. It was
the first flagship phone from the South Korean electronics giant that looked and felt
like a flagship phone. The smooth glass front and back were joined by a sturdy
aluminum mid-frame, and there were only a few small pieces of plastic on the
phone’s exterior — the small strips that separated each section of the aluminum
frame, and the home button.

It was official: Samsung was a premium smartphone maker.

The company’s flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note handsets have always featured
cutting-edge specs. They have always offered terrific performance that was on par
with the best Android phones in the business. And they have always had stunning
displays with vivid colors and great contrast. Now, starting with the Galaxy S6, they
also featured designs to match. But still, few people would argue that the company’s
phones looked as sleek or felt as premium as Apple’s iPhones.

Until now, that is.

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In terms of hardware design, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are the complete
package. They’re industry leaders in terms of specs, as Samsung’s flagship phones
always have been. They also feature Super AMOLED screens that are unrivaled.
Again, this has been the norm for Samsung for years. But the biggest story in terms of
Samsung’s growth as a smartphone maker is the design.

Samsung has always been a follower, ever since it released its first smartphone nearly
a decade ago. But now, Samsung is a leader.

In fact, diehard Apple fans have been unable to find anything to complain about, so
some of them have resorted to insignificant nonsense like the alignment of the USB-C
port and speaker openings on the bottom of the phone. While it’s true that Apple’s
alignment on the bottom of the iPhone 6/6s/7 is perfect, I’m not sure there’s a sane
end user on the planet who would actually care about something like this.

But it’s indicative of the difference between Samsung and Apple when it comes to
attention to detail! Perhaps. Or perhaps Samsung decided it was more important to
squeeze in the phone’s internal components as tightly as possible so that it could
create a design with a remarkable screen-to-body ratio of 83%. Trust me, Galaxy S8
and Galaxy S8+ users are going to appreciate the narrow bezels around the Infinity
Display far more than any iPhone user appreciates his or her perfectly aligned ports.
Also of note, Samsung managed to make its new flagship phones IP68 water-resistant
without removing the 3.5mm headphone jack, misaligned though it may be.

Speaking of screen-to-body ratios, welcome to the next smartphone battleground.

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First, it was specs. Then, after Apple introduced the Retina Display, it was pixels.
Now, beginning in 2017, it’s bezels. Every top smartphone vendor in the world is
hard at work shrinking the bezels on their flagship phones so that the screen takes up
as much of the phone’s face as possible. Is doing away with bezels on smartphones
really that important? In a word, yes.

Apart from being crucial to upcoming advances in augmented reality, barely-there

bezels like the ones surrounding the Galaxy S8 display allow for a much more
immersive user experience. Distractions fade away and content becomes the sole
focus. Why do you think Apple has never included a logo or anything else that might
be distracting on the faces of its iPhones? It’s because when someone is using his or
her phone, the content on the screen is all matters.

The 83% screen-to-body ratio on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ is the best in the
business among top-tier global smartphone makers right now. By comparison, the
three-year-old iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus design has a screen-to-body ratio of 66%.
As I wrote in an earlier opinion piece, using the iPhone after having used the Galaxy
S8 feels like going back to a tube TV after having upgraded to a flat-screen

On the flip side, Samsung had to remove its physical home button from the Galaxy S8
and S8+ in order to achieve such an impressive screen-to-body ratio, and the company
tried its best to copy Apple with its new virtual home button. It failed.

The virtual home button on Samsung’s new phones is pressure sensitive, similar to
Apple’s 3D Touch home button on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Apple’s solution
utilizes advanced pressure sensors coupled with a Taptic Engine to make pressing the
virtual home button on an iPhone feel and sound like pressing a real button. On the

17
Galaxy S8, pressing the home button feels like pressing a plain old touchscreen, and
presses are accompanied by the same weak vibration feedback you’d find on any
other phone.

It might seem like an insignificant detail, but it’s not. As we move further toward
phones that don’t have any buttons at all, advanced haptic feedback systems can make
flat glass feel like a button. Apple has a huge head start in this area, and it will be
quite some time before other companies catch up.

Like the LG G6, Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ both feature screens with
a tall 18:9 aspect ratio. As a result, it’s difficult to compare their sizes to other
smartphones. For example, the 5.8-inch display on the smaller Galaxy S8 is
technically bigger than the screen on Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus phablet, but Apple’s
screen is wider than the one on the S8. Long story short, diagonal measurements no
longer tell the whole story.

What matters is that both new Galaxy S8 models have nice big displays that are
simply unrivaled right now. They both feature Quad HD+ (2960 x 1440) resolution,
so the 5.8-inch screen on the Galaxy S8 has a pixel density of 570 ppi while the
Galaxy S8+ has a 6.2-inch screen with 529 ppi. On paper, it’s a fairly big discrepancy.
In reality, it’s difficult to notice a difference in most scenarios. What matters is
regardless of which model you end up with, you’ll hold in your hand the finest
smartphone display that has ever existed.

As was the case with the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7, the sides of the Galaxy S8 and S8+
are curved on both the front and the back. The phones are each about the same width
as comparable smartphone models from other vendors, but the curved sides help them

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sit more comfortably in the hand because they feel narrower. They also feel much
thinner than they are thanks to the curves, though widths of 8mm for the Galaxy S8
and 8.1mm for the Galaxy S8+ aren’t very thick even without the curves on either
side.

Inside, the US versions of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are both powered by
Qualcomm’s new 10nm octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset, which marries a 2.3GHz
quad for heavy lifting with a 1.7GHz quad for everything else. When they are released

on Friday, April 21st, they’ll be the first widely available smartphones in the world to
feature 10nm chips, which should offer advantages both in terms of power and
efficiency. You’ll also find 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM in Samsung’s new flagships,
along with 64GB of UFS 2.1 flash storage and micro SDXC support.

I can vouch for the Snapdragon 835’s performance. Everyone has seen the
benchmarks by now, but that’s only part of the story. Everything on the Galaxy S8
feels faster than on rival Android phones, from opening apps, to switching apps, to
using apps. It really does feel turbocharged. In my testing over the past few days, I
have yet to find anything that can trip up the phone’s performance in any meaningful
way.

Unfortunately, I cannot vouch for any gains in power efficiency that might be
afforded by the Snapdragon 835 or any other optimizations Samsung has made in the
Galaxy S8 and S8+. Samsung delivered my review unit just this past Friday, and my
usage while testing the phone is obviously nothing like average usage on a day-to-day
basis. Normally when I review phones, I like to beat them up with heavy testing for a

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couple of days and then use them normally so I can communicate real-world battery
performance.

What I can say about the batteries in Samsung’s new phones is that they refuel
quickly. I tested Samsung’s standard fast charging via USB-C as well as its wireless
fast charging, and both methods were fast to fill up the phone. As long as they don’t
explode, Samsung appears to have done a fine job with the batteries in the Galaxy S8
and Galaxy S8+. I believe either phone will carry a person through a full day of
average usage, and they charge up very quickly to minimize the hassle on days with
heavy usage.

When Samsung confirmed that the rear camera on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+
would be the same 12-megapixel Dual Pixel camera found on the Galaxy S7, Galaxy
S7 edge, and Galaxy Note 7, I saw a number of bloggers and smartphone enthusiasts
complain online. On one hand, I can certainly see where they’re coming from — no
mobile camera is perfect, so we’re used to seeing camera tech improve with each new
generation of smartphone. But on the other hand, Samsung’s Dual Pixel camera is
easily one of the best in the business. In some lighting it is the best, hands down. It’s
difficult to complain about such a solid smartphone camera.

Samsung says that it has made some changes to the rear camera on the software side,
though I really haven’t noticed much of a difference in my testing. The Galaxy S7
captured great photos, the Galaxy S7 edge captured great photos, the Galaxy Note 7
captured great photos, and now the Galaxy S8 and S8+ capture great photos. What’s
not so great, however, is the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner next to the camera on
the back of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

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The back of a phone is an awful, awful place for a fingerprint scanner. Even after
you’ve spent months with a phone and you know it like the back of your hand,
unlocking a smartphone with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner means blindly
sliding your finger around the back before finding the scanner. It’s bad enough on
phones with scanners that are placed on the center of the back, and it’s even worse
with the Galaxy S8’s fingerprint reader, which is high up the back and off-center next
to the camera lens. Side note: Thanks to Samsung’s scanner placement, your rear
camera lens will always be covered with plenty of oil from your finger.

Speaking of oil, the rear glass panel on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is not treated with an
oleophobic coating like the front, so prepare for a permanent layer of grease and
grime unless you plan to use a case. Of course, this issue will be familiar to anyone
who has owned a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S6.

The positioning of the fingerprint scanner is, without question, a poor design choice.
Complaining about misaligned charging ports is stupid, but the scanner placement is a
very valid complaint, and I would wager that Samsung’s own design team would
agree. Rumor has it the company wanted to embed the fingerprint reader in the
display itself, like Apple is rumored to be doing, but Samsung and its parts suppliers
couldn’t find a way to make it work in time for mass production.

If fumbling around for a fingerprint scanner doesn’t sound appealing, there are plenty
of other ways to unlock your Galaxy S8. Beyond PINs, patterns, and passcodes, the
S8 and S8+ also support iris scanning and facial recognition. The latter isn’t terribly
secure since it has already been discovered that it can be fooled with a photo.

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The iris scanner is a bit more secure, but it can also be inconvenient since you have to
swipe over from the lock screen by default before the phone will scan your eyes. This
was done to avoid accidental unlocks when the user is trying to read notifications or
check other lock screen content, which certainly makes sense. If you don’t can about
seeing lock screen content, you can configure the phone so that you don’t need to
swipe to scan your irises. But you obviously still have to hold the phone out in front
of you and position it so that your eyes are in the alignment circles that appear at the
top of the screen. It’ll never be as quick as a fingerprint scan.

Moving inside the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, you’ll find a newly refined software
experience. As is the case with the Galaxy S8 hardware, the company’s “Samsung
Experience” software in 2017 is its best yet.

Each year, Samsung continues to strip away more and more clutter, moving ever
closer to a stock Android experience. Closer, yes, but make no mistake — there’s
nothing stock about the Android build on Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The first thing you’ll notice about Samsung’s software on the Galaxy S8 is that it’s
fast. Very, very fast. Hardcore Android fans were upset when they found out that a
special upgraded Galaxy S8 with 6GB of RAM would be made available in some
Eastern markets and not in the US, but I can assure you that the Snapdragon 835 and
4GB of RAM provide more than enough oomph and memory to keep things humming
along.

From news readers, Twitter and email apps to media streaming apps, 3D games and
more, the Galaxy S8+ powered through all my tests without a hiccup. Long story
short, it can handle anything a user might throw its way. I had videos streaming in

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half of Samsung’s multi-window layout while I was loading large web pages in the
other half, and again, not a single stutter or stammer to speak of. Apart from a few
Android oddities here and there — seriously, is Google EVER going to get scroll
physics right?! — the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ offer the smoothest experience
you’ll find on a Google-powered smartphone.

While some other manufacturers have moved away from developing their own apps
when Google already offers, Samsung still insists on holding onto a few dupes. For
example, you’ll find Samsung’s Gallery app in addition to the preinstalled Google
Photos app, which is clearly superior. Samsung also includes its own web browser in
addition to Chrome. While moves like these made precious little sense on older
phones, there’s a method to the madness on the Galaxy S8.

Using a device that Samsung calls DeX, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ can connect
to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to power a desktop computing experience.
Samsung’s apps are optimized for this experience, while third-party apps might not
always perform as well in desktop mode. The DeX solution looked impressive when
Samsung demoed it briefly for me last month before the Galaxy S8 was announced,
but the company didn’t supply a DeX dock with my review phone so I haven’t yet
been able to test it myself.

Beyond Samsung’s apps, the TouchWiz experience — sorry, Samsung Experience —

has been tweaked in a number of areas on the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Some changes are
minor, such as the option to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the app
drawer. Other changes are more significant, like Samsung’s move to on-screen home,

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back, and app switcher buttons, an obvious necessity since the physical home button
was scrapped.

Samsung staples like the Always On Display feature and Samsung’s customization
options are all still present on the S8. There’s also an “Advanced features” section in
the settings app that provides access to several Samsung-only features. Here are some
examples:

Smart stay: Eye detection keeps the screen on as long as you’re looking at it

Game Launcher: A special launcher that can hold all your games instead of mixing
them with apps in the drawer

One-handed mode: Swipe up from a corner to shrink the size of the screen so
everything can be reached with one hand

Finger sensor gestures: Open and close the notification panel by swiping up or down
on the fingerprint sensor

Quick launch camera: Double-tap the power button to launch the camera

Multi window: Open two apps on the screen at the same time

Smart alert: This feature makes your phone vibrate when you pick it up and have
missed notifications

Video enhancer: This setting automatically upscales videos to enhance picture quality

There are a bunch of other ones in there, and they vary in their usefulness.

Another new addition to the Samsung Experience on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ is Bixby.
As many people might have already read, however, Bixby is a huge letdown for the
time being in the US market. In a nutshell, Samsung’s voice-controlled virtual
assistant can’t yet be controlled using one’s voice.\

The weirdest part about is that there’s a dedicated Bixby button that is supposed to
offer two functions. Pressing and holding the Bixby button is supposed to launch the
Bixby voice assistant, which is like Siri or Amazon Alexa. At launch, this core Bixby
feature won’t actually exist; Samsung has delayed the voice portion of Bixby in the
United States.

Tapping the button launches the Bixby Home page, which is a collection of cards
similar to Google Now. At least, it’s supposed to — the alternate method of accessing
Bixby Home (swiping right on the first home screen) is the only method of accessing
Bixby Home that actually works on my review unit. So, right now on my review unit,
the Bixby button does nothing at all.

As it stands now, Bixby Home is Samsung’s answer to Google Now. The interface is
the same cascade of cards, and the content therein is similar as well, offering time,

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location, and context-aware content. One nifty feature that Google doesn’t yet have,
however, is Bixby Vision. This is similar to the Firefly feature Amazon introduced on
the ill-fated Fire phone. Point the camera at an object and Bixby will offer
information and context, if it recognizes the object. Bixby Vision can also offer
information about points of interest using the camera and your location, and it can
translate printed text in real-time in more than 50 different languages.

Bixby could grow into a very useful feature on Samsung phones, but right now it’s
painfully incomplete. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ run Android 7.0 Nougat,
however, so they also include the much more complete Google Assistant solution. I
certainly plan to revisit Bixby once it’s a more complete product, but Google
Assistant is clearly the way to go for the time being. Remember, Siri was a mess as
well when it first launched, and now it has evolved into a fantastic tool that millions
of iPhone owners use all the time. Give Samsung a while to work through Bixby’s
initial growing pains before you dismiss Bixby completely.

Nearly everything about Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ leaked long
before the company actually unveiled its new flagship phones last month. We thought
there was no way there would be any surprises left. While all the phones’ new
features were indeed covered by the leaks and rumors that led up to the unveiling, we
were still entirely unprepared for the devices Samsung showed off that day.

The fact that Samsung has managed to out-design Apple is nothing short of shocking.
The South Korean company has been chasing Apple ever since it first entered the
smartphone market, but matching the iPhone in terms of design and build is
something I never thought I would see Samsung manage. The company hasn’t just

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matched Apple’s iPhone design with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, it has surpassed
Apple’s iPhone design.

Like anyone else who has been keeping an eye on iPhone 8 rumors, I fully expect
Apple to make a strong showing later this year when it unveils its redesigned tenth-
anniversary iPhone. There’s a lot of time between now and September, however, and I
have a feeling many Apple fans will have some soul-searching to do when they finally
get the chance to check out Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ following
their release this Friday, April 21st.

For Android fans, meanwhile, the Galaxy S8 is a no-brainer unless you absolutely
must have stock Android. There are a number of good reasons to stick with stock
Android, and the timeliness of operating system updates is at the top of the list. It’s a
big tradeoff though, when you consider the power, performance, and beautiful design
of the Galaxy S8.

5. Organizational Policies

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 Chapter-2
Industrial Analysis
1. Industry Overview –(Growth rate of Industry, Contribution to GDP)

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