Samsung's Chief Strategy Officer Reveals His Preference for Apple's Ecosystem

[Akshay Masand]

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, President and Chief Strategy Office at Samsung, Young Sohn, admitted his personal preference for Apple’s tightly connected ecosystem over that of Samsung's. He went on to acknowledge that Apple is a “very innovative company,” and noted that Apple is a customer of Samsung’s as well as a fierce competitor. Sohn mentioned he’s always used a Mac along with an iPhone and an iPad because Apple’s ecosystem is “sticky,” making it convenient to buy in to the company’s product lineup.

The Samsung executive mentioned he firmly believes that customers are even more drawn to Apple’s ecosystem with services such as iCloud than they are to the products themselves. He said the Galaxy Nexus is technically a “better phone” than the iPhone, but added that the “connected ecosystem is really critical.” He went on to admit that “at work I’m using Samsung devices; Apple at home, mainly because all of my systems and files are done that way. That’s the sticky, you know? However, I did figure out how to sync all of my contacts and all of my schedules between the two different systems. You can do it. It’s a bit of work, but it’s possible.”

In the future, Sohn said he would like to see Samsung offer a more complete experience than it currently does. According to Sohn, Samsung’s current philosophy is very “device-centric” as the company provides more devices that consumers interact with than anyone in the world. He went on to say the following regarding his point of view:

It's experienced by itself. It's not experienced in a connected way. So we think we can provide a lot more things than what we are doing today with an open ecosystem with our partners.

As of right now, Samsung is said to be one of the main component suppliers for Apple but Apple is believed to be making an effort to move away from its reliance on the South Korean manufacturer as the two companies have grown in competition with one another. Officials are Apple are specifically upset by what they see and claim is blatant copying of devices like the iPhone and iPad in Samsung’s product lineup. This was seen as a jury in California ruled that Samsung had infringed on Apple’s patented designs, hitting Samsung with $1.05 billion in damages.

It isn’t much of a surprise to see even Samsung employees using Apple products as the popularity of iOS devices continues to grow.

Source: MIT Technology Review

[Norb]

LOL Second time I'm reading about this and it does not cease to make me smirk...

Suicide hotline is going to be flooded by Samsung fanboys?

[Breezy215]

Can you say "Former" Chief Strategy Officer?? lol

[jasvncnt10]

I like Samsung, have the GS3. Not really a "fanboy" of any company. But this story doesnt bother me at all.

[thevmax]

I guess Sohn doesn't want to work at Samsung anymore...
Is he trolling for Apple job ? !

[Mrteacup]

You guys seriously think he will get fired? Hmm let's think he just pointed out what works with apple and why he and consumers prefer apple, oh and he's in charge of samsungs strategy. Hes pointing out what's successful so he's obviously hinting at what Samsung will be adding and what he is trying to implement.

[Slim J]

That's ironic

[zrevai]

So now you can look forward to S-Cloud in addition to S-Beam