In this section, firstly, an internal analysis of Samsungs tablet sector would be conducted to determine the possible factors that play a role in Samsung’s competitive strategies to obtain long-term sustainability. For this purpose, this study uses SWOT analysis as this can offer a boarder overview of the organisation covering a substantially large number of factors.
1. SWOT Analysis
1.1. Strengths
1. 1.1.1. Operating system and Hardware integration. Samsung is engaged with producing devices that can be integrated with most of the software and operating system (OS). This provides Samsung products an edge over the devices produced by its arch enemy, Apple, because Android and other OS are gaining market share over iOS (Table 2). …show more content…
3. 1.1.3. Innovation. Samsung was ranked as the largest patent portfolio among its competitors on the list of US top patent assignees, in 2013, thereby placing the company at a good position in the market compared to its competitors (Table 5). Samsung has won many awards for the design of its products, proving to be superior over its competitors. 4. 1.1.4. Low production costs. Samsung has established its manufacturing facilities in low-cost countries. This allows for producing goods with low production cost, as it can offer lower price and earn higher profit margins.
5. 1.1.4. Brand marketability. Samsung is one of the most marketable brand names worldwide, as shown by occupying the 8th rank in Forbes list of Most Valuable Brands with a brand value of $35 billion in 2014, which is 19% higher than in 2013 (Forbes 2015b). Samsung was able to achieve these targets because of its strong brand marketing strategy and social …show more content…
Weaknesses
1. 1.2.1. Patent infringement. Samsung infringed upon some patents of Apple, thereby damaging its reputation and resulted in the organisation paying huge amount of money because of these damages.
2. 1.2.2. Very low profit margin. Samsung is the largest technology business in the world in terms of revenues, but it has a low gross profit and net profit margins. Its profit margin is low because of aggressive price cuts.
3. 1.2.3. No specific OS and software. Without its own software and OS, Samsung is at disadvantage over its main competitor, Apple, as the Android platform does not help in much differentiation between Samsung and other Android-using tablets in terms of software. In addition. Samsung does not sufficiently tap into resources that can be generated via apps like Apple, which alone made half of all app revenue, demonstrating that volume and market share do not translate directly to income (Bradley, 2013).
1.3. Opportunities
1. 1.3.1. Developing countries. The tablet market of India is one of the least explored markets among Asian/Pacific countries. Samsung has a strong presence in India’s market and could use this opportunity to expand its