Ron Hulse, the head of Samsung Canada‘s IT division did not say “No” when asked if the subsidiary would introduce a notebook product to the Canadian market place.
For Samsung Canada to bring a Samsung-branded notebook, which is available in the Asia-Pacific marketplace, it will take a successful American introduction and then a plan for the Canadian market that makes sense, Hulse said.
“We will walk before we run (with notebooks),” he added.
However, if those two things to come to fruition, Hulse said Samsung Canada would release a notebook in Canada. Samsung Canada’s P3 (Power Partner Program) channel partners will then get the first crack at the future product.
“Should they have room in their portfolio for another notebook we will offer it to them first,” Hulse said.
He added that Samsung Canada would take a conservative approach with its notebook channel strategy. “We don’t have a legacy (in notebooks in Canada). We can build a new and fresh offering, while maintaining our focus on printing and large format displays. We will expand no place else,” he said.
If there are any parallels with Samsung Canada’s potential notebook it is with Toshiba, Hulse said. Toshiba has great technology and at one point in time dominated the market. Today, however, Toshiba battles with Lenovo, Dell and HP for notebook market share.
“I am pretty certain (Toshiba) relies on the retail channel. If we were in the notebook space we would be in retail and a select VAR channel, because you can’t just live in retail,” he said.
Hulse believes that the Canadian market will always have room for another credible notebook player. “Samsung is a leading manufacturer of cell phones and TVs and we have just entered IT in the last ten years. So you can enter a market with the right product and approach. We have an organization that can do it and I have a high degree of confidence in our R&D. It dwarfs any of our competition,” Hulse said.
He added that Samsung is one of the largest producers of memory, flat panels, solid state drives and circuit boards, and would be able to supply Samsung Canada to compete on price in the market place.