Samsung woos corporate IT buyers

Electronics giant Samsung has announced plans to enhance its notebook range with security and performance management features, and unveiled a new LCD panel measuring just 0.82mm thick that should enable thinner mobile handset designs.

During a press tour of its headquarters in Suwon, South Korea, Samsung also detailed initiatives aimed at the corporate market, including the development of its Power Partner programme for resellers, and closer engagement with enterprise customers so that future products are tailored to specific business requirements.

Although the firm said it has no plans to move into the corporate desktop market, it is stepping up efforts to attract business users to its laptop products by focusing on security, performance and total cost of ownership (TCO).

Fingerprint recognition capabilities, Magic Doctor self-diagnosis technology and a SpeedUP Manager performance management tool will be added to several laptop products slated for release next year, according to Sukyong Hong, senior manager at Samsung’s computer services division.

“Nowadays notebooks are commodity products, so it’s not easy to differentiate between home and business users. But a major requirement from business users is reducing the TCO,” Hong said. “The self-diagnosis feature could also lead to a reduction in calls to the helpdesk.” Toshiba and Lenovo already offer similar self-diagnosis tools.

Samsung said its corporate push will initially be directed at smaller firms. It will be supported by a marketing campaign intended to establish the firm as a business brand, and a dedicated web site developed as a resource for IT managers.

“The B2B space has huge opportunities, and it’s one we must move into if we want to sustain growth,” said Samsung’s European IT business director Graham Paterson. “We’ve been building up the infrastructure and capabilities. We have a great position already as the number one monitor brand and number two in laser printers – the idea is to use the assets we have, and to [triple] revenue by 2010.”

As well as boosting its business notebook range, Samsung may also diversify into CPUs or storage to attract more enterprise custom. “We’ve already got a business in the corporate area but we’ve not necessarily had the product line to move up the food chain,” Paterson said.

The firm said it has no plans to introduce Nand Flash-based solid state disks (SSD) on any forthcoming notebook models, despite launching a 32 GB SSD version of its Q1 ultra-mobile PC recently.

SSDs have several benefits over traditional hard disks, including better performance, quicker boot-up times and greater durability, making them popular for certain apps.

On the mobile front, Samsung announced reportedly the thinnest ever LCD panel at just 0.82mm. The firm said that it will enable handset manufacturers to reduce the thickness of their phones by between 1.4mm and 2.4mm.

Samsung also revealed that next year will see a new version of its triple-hinge stand that should provide even more viewing flexibility, as well as more thin-client monitor offerings. No-Nois noise reduction technology will be built into all printing releases, it added.