When you say the word ‘Samsung’, we tend to think of smartphones. Samsung is a global leader in the smartphone market, and is the most popular brand in the Caribbean. In speaking with Gianmarco Leri, Product Manager for Samsung Electronics, who focuses in the Caribbean region, we learn about consumer and tech trends that are influencing how Samsung smartphones are evolving, and what Samsung has in store for the Caribbean in the coming months.

 

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If you stop for a just moment to think about it, you might not be able to truly wrap your head around how the smartphone has changed your life. This combination of plastic, glass and metal, which typically is under 6 inches (30 cm) long, has basically taken over our lives, and has replaced so many standalone devices, including watches, alarm clocks, the telephone, computers, CD (or mp3) players, DVD players, and even televisions.

For many of us in the Caribbean, one of our first smartphones was manufactured by Samsung, and it is still extremely popular across the region. Depending on when you jumped on the Samsung bandwagon, Apple and its iPhone was the brand to beat.

Although Apple has its loyalists, there is no denying that Samsung is one of the top smartphone brands in the world today. Its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series are among the most coveted, and the firm is a recognised leader in innovation and in areas such as screen technology, batteries, and chip design. Further, thanks to the range of lines it carries to suit a broad range of price points, Samsung is also the bestselling smartphone brand in the world, with around 21% of the global market at the end of Q1 2019, and shipped around 72 million units (source:  Counterpoint Technology Market Research).

Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy S10 in earlier this year, which is considered its flagship line, and a number of new devices, such as the new Galaxy Note 10 and additions to the Galaxy A series, will be rolled out throughout the course of this year. We thus thought it opportune to try to get a peek behind the Samsung veil, and get a feel for, among other things:

  • what drives the company
  • Samsung’s thoughts about the Caribbean and the Caribbean consumer
  • some of trends that Samsung might be following, and
  • what might be down the pike for Samsung, and Samsung in the Caribbean, in the short term.

Gianmarco Leri (Samsung)

To share some insight into the world that is Samsung, we spoke with Gianmarco Leri, Product Manager for Samsung Electronics, who based in the Miami and focusses on the Caribbean market. Some of the questions posed to Gianmarco include following:

  1. What to expect from Samsung in the Caribbean in 2019?
  2. How were Samsung’s sales in the Caribbean region in 2018?
  3. What has been the most popular Samsung devices globally, and in the Caribbean, over the past year or so?
  4. What does Samsung think of the Caribbean consumer?
  5. What role does innovation play at Samsung?
  6. How, or in what ways, has Samsung been fostering an innovation culture within the organisation?
  7. What are some of the tech trends that are likely to influence how the Samsung creates products and services going forward?
  8. What are key trends in consumer attitude and behaviour that Samsung finds interesting, and could influence how the organisation creates products and services in the future?
  9. What’s next for Samsung over the next 2—3 years, and how might the Caribbean region be affected by those plans?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  RSNews; Samsung

Music credit:  Ray Holman