When iPhone 6 was launched, nobody realized that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was also launched at almost the same time. People paid all their attention on iPhone 6, and forgot that there was another good brand called Samsung. This situation aroused my curiosity, because we know that Samsung is also one of the most popular smart phone brand in the world.

The following paragraphs are my analysis:

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd is one of the largest technology companies in the world, and it mainly produces consumer electronics, telecoms equipment, semiconductors and home appliances. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd is a pretty strong company in the age of technology.

Samsung has low production costs which make the price of some products lower than some other brands. Samsung does not price most products very high, so it has a very low gross margin on these products. However, it also faces threats due to its price, because all other technology companies are trying to reduce their price of the products. If Samsung continues to cutting price, the gross margin of many products will finally falls to zero percent.

Also, the design of Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is not very innovative, because most of smart phones that produced by Samsung are ultrathin with big screens. The screen of Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is still very big and is bigger than most cellphones of other brands. But iPhone 6 copied this innovation, and Apple Inc. also produced big screen smartphones which is iPhone 6 Plus. People like innovative products, and the innovation and design can bring more benefits to Samsung. But if Samsung and Apple are at the same conditions, more people might prefer iPhone 6 with no rational reasons.

Moreover, Samsung focus on too many products which is one of its weaknesses. Samsung has to divide the resources equally to produce different products. In this case, Samsung Electronics loses a focus when competing in too many different industries and products. When Samsung tries to make good smart phones, the company is also trying to make good home appliances. Samsung is in too many competitions in the different industries at the same time. In this case, Samsung could not put all of its attentions on the smartphones which gives Apple Inc. a lot of opportunities to go beyond it. On the contrary, Apple Inc only focuses on several products, such as iPhone, iPod, iPad and Macbook. From this, I think people might believe more in the company that only dominates in one industry.

Even though Samsung might not be the top one among all of the technology companies today, it is improving its products and its services gradually. It might overcome its weaknesses one day and become a better electronic and technology company in the future.

Reference:

Jurevicius, Ovidijus. SWOT analysis of Samsung. Strategic Management Insight. Feb 16, 2013. Web.

http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-analyses/samsung-swot-analysis.html

Kelly, Jordan. Apple iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: 2014’s Biggest Smartphone Fight. Forbes. Oct. 14, 2014. Web.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/08/13/apple-iphone-6-vs-samsung-galaxy-alpha-2014s-biggest-smartphone-fight/

Samsung Official Website:

http://www.samsung.com/ca/aboutsamsung/index.html

Rogerson James. Samsung Galaxy Note 4 release date, news and features. techradar.phones. Sep 25, 2014. Web.

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-note-4-release-date-news-and-rumors-1239700

Business ethics means that corporations need to be honest, and be responsible for their economic action, their products, their employees and their consumers. In order to gain more profits, some companies just ignore the environmental problems; give the employees too much work and force the employees to work more hours than they should work. In this case, these kinds of actions are seen as unethical behaviors. Corporations are not like an isolated part in the whole society, and they should think about a lot of things before they make a decision. Their behaviors sometimes might hurt others’ rights.

This article is about Nestle, one of the largest bottled water companies, with no need for paying one cent for extracting water from the well in British Columbia, because B.C. does not have water regulations. In this case, Nestle could extract as much water as they want from the well without the costs of water, and then sell it as bottled water to get benefits. In this article, what can be seen is that Nestle lacks of business ethics. Because B.C. does not charge for groundwater and it lacks of oversight, Nestle sees this as an opportunity and uses this opportunity to seek excessive profits. Nestle draws groundwater from the well in B.C. for free and then sells it back to people at high price which is even higher than the price of gasoline. Nestle does not consider a lot about the consumers, and the company just wants to gain more profits. Therefore, I think what Nestle does is an unethical behavior based on the concept of the business ethics.

Reference:

Fumano, Dan. “Wild West” of groundwater : Billion-dollar Nestle extracting B.C. ‘s drinking water for free. Times Colonist. Aug 14, 2013. Web.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/wild-west-of-groundwater-billion-dollar-nestlé-extracting-b-c-s-drinking-water-for-free-1.587568