On his last day in Seoul, our editor-at-large reflects not on everything that Samsung has said, but what the company hasn't been saying.
Editor's note: Part 1 of this feature series can be found here.
Today, instead of touring Samsung facilities, the company sponsored a trip for the visiting journalists to visit the demilitarized zone, a fascinating, frightening tour of barbed wire boundary and the tunnels the North was discovered to have been digging. On the bus trip to and from the DMZ, I had time to reflect on everything Samsung had told me on the trip, and to read between the lines for the real story. Here's what I've been thinking.
WiMAX
Samsung is firmly behind WiMAX, and both Samsung and Sprint are sticking to the "early '08" launch of the service. The problem is, nobody knows how they're going to charge for it. Samsung imagines WiMAX as a ubiquitous networking tool. Eventually, WiMAX chips will be in everything, from your refrigerator to your baby carriage, but how will you pay for the internet service? Sprint, at an event this past summer, imagined a few possibilities, including a general subscription plan that would cover all of your devices, and a prepaid plan that be included in the price of the device you buy. Still, with only 8 months left until the second half of 2008, it is time to make some decisions, and to prepare the public.
This was the challenge I posed to Samsung: how do you educate the public about a service that can be difficult to understand? The answer they gave me was basically that it isn't their job. It is their job to make the chips, and support the service provider and the customers, but not to market or sell the specific subscription plan. And, just because they are building out the entire East Coast's worth of WiMAX for Sprint doesn't mean they have abandoned LTE for GSM networks or Verizon Wireless, should the other carriers go that way. Still, beyond hedging their bets, Samsung has a lot at stake here, and its more than just money. Samsung has been trumpeting WiMAX up and down the globe, and the company was clear that the Sprint launch is a shot that's going to be heard 'round the world. I think that, in the end, Sprint will do its best to shoehorn WiMAX into the status quo. That is, buying a WiMAX plan will feel very much like buying a cellular plan, although this might not be the best way to educate, and therefore excite, the consumer.
Google
Samsung didn't say anything to us about any partnership with Google, but we did see more Google on Samsung phones in this trip than we were used to. The SGH-i550, Samsung's just-announced Symbian S60 phone for Europe, has a Google search field right on the today screen. Reps casually reminded us that Samsung has deals in place with both Google and Yahoo, but we didn't see any Yahoo search bars on our trip. Especially not on a brand new phone, sporting some new design elements and a popular (in Europe, anyway) OS that seems to be making tech headlines right and left. Personally, I don't see any reason why Google should want to get into the hardware business, let alone the phone business, which is as competitive and fickle as any field. Perhaps they simply feel obligated to live up to their own hype? In any case, I asked a Samsung rep point blank: "Do you deny that Samsung is working with Google on a co-branded phone?" and all I got was nervous laughter . . . from the journalists behind me. From the Samsung rep, I got a humble explanation that I basically wasn't talking to someone who would know, and they wouldn't tell me anyway if they did.
The U.S. carriers
Nobody at Samsung said an unkind word about the four major U.S. carriers in my presence. But, when I was talking to the designers, they weren't going on and on about how nice it is to develop a new look for the Verizon Wireless V Cast UI, either. They were talking about innovative ideas in form, graphical design and audio interface. Sure, I couldn't expect to see a phone with DMB mobile TV, not without the proper network in place, but why not bring the U600, a beautiful 10.9mm slider? Okay, actually I did hear a rumor that the phone is coming, but I didn't hear it from Samsung. Then, why not the B710, the coolest phone in all of South Korea? Where is my 3D interface and stereoscopic camera? How about the SGH-i550, or any of the adorable little feature phones with the cool fashion prints on the case? Why won't Samsung offer these phones unlocked? They wouldn't say, but their silence says everything. The carriers have too much power in the U.S. market, and American consumers are being denied their choice. I'm not asking to import a car with horrible emissions, or a prescription drug that hasn't been tested. It's just a cell phone. I want my 3D cell phone!
Disclosure
In any case, now that all is said and done, I want to make it very clear to our readers exactly the terms of this all-expense-paid trip to Korea. I was invited with a group of five journalists, and Samsung paid my way. They bought the plane ticket, paid for my hotel, and purchased nearly every meal I ate. In all, if I had to estimate, I would say the trip easily topped $10,000, had I paid for it myself, which I certainly could not have done. In return, Samsung asked for absolutely nothing. In fact, in all the planning for this trip, there was never a mention of any reciprocation of any kind. I decided how we would cover this trip on our site, and though I expect company reps are reading my posts, I got neither comments nor criticisms about what I wrote, and in fact I have been quite critical of what I have seen here, with the notable exception of the B710, which genuinely blew my mind.
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