Lesson # 42 : How the little kid called Samsung made it big and why he's not gonna suvive

A few years ago and I refer to India in general when a consumer wanted to go buy a mobile phone his first preference was to buy a nokia. If perhaps it didn’t suit his style a Motorola and in the worst case scenario perhaps a sony ericsson. Not even in his wildest imagination or craziest nightmare would he have considered buying an LG or a Samsung.

Fast forward a decade and you see this crazy influx of consumers who flock the malls, retail stores and online shopping portals to lay their hands on the latest Samsung phone out there. Lg’s also there giving Samsung tough competition but Samsung has literally blown the consumer off his feet.

So the question is  how did this exactly happen?

Well for one Samsung decided to make consumer friendly phones. Phones with features Nokia didn’t deem necessary till Samsung started including them.

Samsung then went on to rope in Aamir Khan a few years ago to increase it’s brand image and create a balance between it’s rural and urban market share.

Samsung also delved into markets that Nokia had deemed unfit and started to market the phones like crazy in rural areas.

Apart from this Samsung was working side by side with Apple and Google. For apple it was developing the internal units for it’s Iphones whereas for Google it was developing the Nexus range of smartphones. Thereby striking a balance which would help improve it’s hardware considerably.

Samsung’s big break however, came with the release of the Android operating system and when Nokia decided to steer clear away from it. Samsung having worked previously on the Nexus phones managed to crack the market with its offerings.

Apart from this cool advertisements and extravagant offers with mobile phone operators such as three months free internet on airtel helped it get some extra brownie points.

However, now Samsung has a tough task ahead. With one battle lost the legitimacy of the android operating system and an entire Samsung range is in jeopardy. So the question is can Samsung flick it’s magic wand once again and come out on top?

It's going to be rough with Microsoft coming up with the Surface, Google will also try to develop phones using Motorola and Blackberry all set to launch the 10 operating system the very future of Samsung is in peril. We know what happens when Samsung tries to invent operating systems as was the case with the Bada. So unless they change real fast the little kid on the block is soon going to be going to heaven.

-Doodle

Lesson # 41: Does Demand Create Supply Or Does Supply Create Demand?

The last article on The Blog was written by a guest editor and he did a fantastic job of explaining the law of demand. In case you missed it click here. This article primarily focusses on the multi zillion dollar question that the previous article sort of raises.

What came first The Demand or The Supply?

Theoretically speaking all those thick books on economic theory state that only when there is a demand for a product will there be a supply. And to some extent I guess that those guys are right. However, let's consider two examples.

The first is that of the Iphone. Steve jobs put it rather bluntly when he said, "The consumer doesn't know what he wants". And that's exactly the case. You and I didn't feel the need for an iphone till it was launched. Obviously it doesn't apply to everyone but it is pretty evident from the sales of the iphone that the consumers have been loving it. Clearly there wasn't a demand for an iphone but Apple still went ahead and came up with it.

Now let's look at another example. Let's take the example of PVR Cinemas in India. There was a clear demand for good quality Hollywood films in India and that is exactly from where PVR as a brand developed. They started out by bringing some films and eventually developed into a full fledged multiplex chain on the basis of meeting the consumers demand.

Based on the two examples it becomes increasingly difficult to decide what came first. The demand or The supply.

And hence lies the unanswered question

Who came first Demand or Supply?

-Doodle