Samsung is a hardware developer, at least that's how most of the world probably views them. Televisions, phones, computers, and a slew of other technological devices make their way out its factories each year, with many of those products well regarded in the general consumer tech market. Samsung is good at what they do, but the company is bringing down the hammer so to speak on what it considers their weak point: software.
"Even though we're doing the software business, we're not as good as we are in hardware," Samsung vice chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-Hyun said at the company's analyst day. He then made a cryptic statement about baseball, comparing the veteran developer to that of the World Series winning Boston Red Sox.
As Oh-Hyun noted, the Red Sox led the pack in batting this year, and was only average when it came to pitching. Despite this Boston still managed to wrap up a World Series win. So where exactly is Oh-Hyun headed with this analogy? Maybe it was a poor example, or perhaps the Samsung CEO is hinting that the company is "winning" in the technology games. They're definitely sitting in a very successful position.
Regardless of the reasoning, or the odd baseball metaphors, Samsung is clearly upset with where it stands in terms of software and is aiming to remedy the situation in the near future. Oh-Hyun revealed that half of Samsung's current research and development team is focused on improving software, and we already know that Samsung is investing a whopping 3 billion dollars into its R&D department. I guess Samsung feels that if you're going to dominate one sector of consumer technology you might as well dominate them all.
Is this a good move on Samsung's part or should they leave software to seasoned developers?