Samsung is one of the most recognised names in the world of technology, and when you consider the company’s long and storied history, it’s really not hard to see why. Samsung has been around since the late-1930s and in the many decades since, they’ve expanded their outreach massively. The company isn’t just recognised for its immensely popular range of smartphones and televisions, but also its dependable appliances!
But how did Samsung become such a global institution? How did a small company from Taegu, Korea go on to become one of the market leaders in the world of technology? Though we may not have cracked time travel, we have taken a glimpse into the past, to draw a connection between Samsung’s humble past and its flourishing present.
Want to know how Samsung became such a recognised institution? Then join the Reliant tech experts below, as we take a look through some of the key Samsung milestones that have made it the company it is today!
Early Days
Humble Beginnings
When you consider just how massive Samsung is now, it’s very interesting to consider just how humble the company’s beginnings were! The company was first founded in March of 1938 by Lee Byung-Chull. However, the company didn’t break right into the world of tech from the beginning. In fact, it would actually take a number of years for Samsung to really dip its toes into the world of manufacturing.
Instead, Samsung actually started as a grocery trader, based in Taegu, Korea. The business initially specialised in selling and exporting dried fish, noodles, and other locally produced goods. Much of the company’s revenue was generated by exporting these goods across to China.
The Samsung trading company actually generated a steady profit, and over the coming years, it was able to expand quite massively. By 1947, Lee took the business to Seoul, where the company founded one of its first offices. Business continued to boom as trade continued between Korea and China. That was until the Korean War threw a spanner into the works.
A Political Setback
With the Korean War igniting tensions between North and South Korea, Samsung was forced to downsize its business operations. In 1950, at the start of the war, Samsung vacated its Seoul offices and relocated to Busan. Here, Lee kept himself busy by starting a sugar refining business. This business kept Samsung afloat for a number of years.
Despite expanding across Korea in the decade prior, the Korean War forced Samsung to temporarily downscale its operations. It stayed afloat by operating a sugar refinery! Samsung also opened a woollen mill to generate further profits.
By 1954, with the Korean War starting to wind down, Lee decided to set up a new woollen mill. In the aftermath of the Korean War, Lee became passionate about helping the country to rebuild itself. As such, his new project would not be just any woollen mill, but the largest one in the country!
A Diverse Portfolio
Though the woollen mill proved immediately successful, Lee was not content to rest on his laurels. The Samsung company instead chose to diversify its portfolio, by acquiring a number of businesses and setting up a number of subsidiary companies. Samsung purchased numerous Korean banks, cement makers, and even an entire department store.
This not only brought in a very steady stream of revenue but also helped to establish Samsung as a name to watch out for!
The company largely benefitted from the country’s protectionist policies. These policies essentially supported local businesses and companies from Korea, either through direct financial aid or by protecting them from competing businesses.
Getting Started In Tech
Samsung is now one of the leading names in the world of tech. But it actually took until the late 1960s for the company to get started in electronics. In the latter half of the decade, Samsung set up a number of subsidiary companies, each with a unique focus on electronics.
Samsung has a long history as a manufacturer of parts. Even to this day, Samsung still produces a number of parts for products offered by third-parties. The company even provides parts for some of its direct competitors!
These subsidiaries began producing small electronic devices and even produced parts for other manufacturers. In fact, many years down the line, Samsung would actually be responsible for providing the microprocessors for the first iPhones! Even to this day, Samsung is a leading manufacturer of parts, selling them off to third parties. Even competing companies like LG, and Philips!
The First Samsung Television
Nowadays, Samsung is one of the first names that come to mind when many of us think of high-end televisions. However, it wasn’t until around the late 1960s that Samsung started producing its first-ever televisions.
Despite television technology having been around for a number of years up until that point, Samsung’s first ever commercially available electronic product was a compact black and white television. The reason it took so long for Samsung to get involved in the production of televisions was largely because the television industry was not quite as big in Korea as it was in other parts of the world.
In 1969, Samsung released its first-ever television. The simple but effective black-and-white model proved immediately successful in Korea, and sold tremendously. It proved so popular that a number of the TVs even shipped internationally.
It’s also worth noting that Samsung’s first-ever TVs were black and white, despite colour TV broadcasts having already started as early as 1954. The reason for this was that there weren’t any Korean TV stations broadcasting content in colour at the time. It would take until 1977 for Samsung to create its first-ever colour TV.
Samsung’s first black and white TV sets proved to be an immediate success. Soon, they were found in homes all across Korea. With time they also began to expand internationally, with Samsung TVs showing up in homes across America, and even the UK!
These early days set up Samsung for fantastic long-term success that they still see with their television products to this day!
International Expansion
During the 1970s, Samsung began to expand internationally, to reach previously-untapped markets across the world. With success both locally and overseas, Samsung was poised to expand even further.
A number of new subsidiary companies were founded, all responsible for creating unique products. These subsidiaries produced appliances such as washing machines, fridges, and ovens. All of these are products that Samsung still specialises in to this day!
Samsung also began to increase its reach within the world of information technology. One of the subsidiary companies, Samsung Data Systems was established to develop unique data systems for applications in all kinds of businesses and fields. The company also expanded into research and development, with specialised teams now focusing on producing telecommunication technologies and creating parts to sell to third parties.
Samsung Gets Started In Telecommunication
Samsung is now one of the leading names in the world of telecommunication. Samsung smartphones are immensely popular, and regularly compete with the extraordinarily popular iPhone range of smartphones. However, it wasn’t until 1980 that Samsung got started with telecommunications.
Samsung smartphones are now incredibly popular, and it’s thanks to the company’s acquisition of Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin in 1980 that the company was able to reach this point. Together with this company, Samsung has produced more than 800 million phones!
In that same year, Samsung purchased Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin, a company that specialised in telecommunications. This would prove to be a milestone moment for the company, as evidenced by Samsung’s now impressive pedigree within the world of mobile phones.
Though the newly-acquired company started off manufacturing switchboards, it soon switched over to producing fax systems and telephones. The company proved immediately successful, and in the coming decades, it would generate a sizable revenue.
With time, Samsung’s mobile phone business expanded, as the company produced a much wider range of models, eventually leading to the iconic smartphones we recognise today. Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin has produced more than 800 million phones in the years since its acquisition in 1980. As of 2012, Samsung was able to overtake Nokia as a major phone manufacturer. This was certainly no minor feat, considering how massive Nokia had been since the late 1980s!
Production Expands
Alongside production of phones and other electronics in its native Korea, Samsung also began to expand its production efforts overseas. Various production facilities were opened up across the world, in locations like Portugal, Tokyo, New York, and the UK.
As Samsung became a more internationally renowned name, it began to shift much of its production overseas. This helped to cut down costs tremendously because now Samsung products did not have to be exported from Korea specifically!
This not only increased the company’s productivity, by enabling millions of products to be manufactured in a short space of time. It also helped to massively increase profits. Samsung products no longer had to be imported from Korea into other major markets. Instead, they could be manufactured overseas, and sold to customers in the same markets!
A Wider Range Of Products
Samsung now produces a massive array of products for all manner of purposes. Throughout the company’s history, it has always sought to diversify its portfolio. The 1990s proved particularly fruitful for the company.
Samsung continued to establish subsidiary companies to help focus on delivering highly specific products and services. The company also decided to place greater emphasis on product quality, to help give the Samsung company a luxury reputation. Not only did the range of products improve, but also the quality of said products.
The History Of Samsung Televisions
Of all of the products Samsung offers, easily some of the most popular are their range of televisions. In fact, televisions are so important to the company, that they have their own unique history! Let’s take a look now to see how Samsung televisions went from those early boxy black-and-white models to the slim OLED displays we know to this day!
The First Samsung TV
The first Samsung TV in the company’s extensive catalogue was released in 1969. This first TV could only display images in black-and-white. To some, this might seem quite curious, considering that colour television had already been invented the decade prior. However, Samsung decided to lead with a black-and-white model because no shows in Korea were currently displayed in colour.
Despite lacking the capacity to display in colour, this first model sold incredibly well, with millions of units populating homes across Korea. The TVs proved so successful, in fact, that Samsung soon expanded to international markets, selling the display overseas.
With just one TV model under its belt, Samsung had already established itself as a dominant name in the world of TV!
Samsung’s First Colour TV!
Though colour television was first invented in 1954, it took until 1977 for Samsung to produce its first-ever colour TVs.
Samsung’s first colour television proved to be an immediate success. However, the company had to wait until colour TV broadcasts first reached Korea before investing in colour TV technology. Samsung has always been a very pragmatic company, so it only began development on colour TV technology once colour broadcasts were widely available!
Samsung’s first ever colour TV came towards the tail-end of the 1970s. This was quite a few years after colour televisions had already been introduced to the rest of the world. Regardless, these colour displays sold immensely well!
Within five years, the colour television had already sold a million units in Korea alone. The black-and-white model also continued to sell well in the years following the introduction of the colour model.
The First Flat Screen TVs
Samsung was one of the first companies to bring flat-panel TVs to the wider world. While early Samsung TVs were very popular, it couldn’t be denied that they took up a lot of space. TVs of the time were very bulky, and thus customers had to be a little more selective with where they placed their displays.
Ever keen to improve the user experience, Samsung began research and development on flat-screen TV displays. The first flat screen TVs offered by Samsung made use of plasma technology to render high quality images with greater colour accuracy. Though plasma technology had already been invented, noone had really put it to good use quite like Samsung.
Samsung’s first-ever flat screen TVs made use of plasma display technology. Plasma allowed these TVs to be incredibly thin, but one downside was that these displays were much dimmer, and very energy-hungry!
Plasma TVs were incredibly exciting upon their first release. Because of their unique display technologies, plasma TVs were incredibly thin, especially when compared to more traditional cathode ray televisions. At this time, many people were also introduced to the idea of wall-mounting televisions. Becaue plasma screens wwe so thin, they could easily be attached directly to the wall!
However, plasma screens sometimes left users a little bit dissatisfied, because they were much dimmer than more traditional TVs. This meant that it was practically impossible to enjoy any content during sunny days!
Samsung TVs Get Brighter Thanks To LED Technology
So how exactly did Samsung account for the dim image brightness on early plasma screens? By introducing edge-lit LED models!
Edge-lit TVs, as the name suggests, make use of LED lights that are arranged around the edge of the screen. Samsung’s first ever edge-lit TVs were released in 2009, and were actually much skinnier than early plasma TVs, yet had much higher levels of brightness.
Because all of the LEDS were arranged around the sides of the screen, these TVs did not have to dedicate space behind the screen for complex backlight arrays. This meant that Samsung TVs were now even skinnier! Edge lighting also proved beneficial for image clarity thanks to greater levels of brightness.
In 2009, Samsung introduced edge-lit plasma displays to the market. These displays were actually even skinner, despite being much brighter. They also consumed less electricity, so were less expensive to run!
These edge-lit TVs were also fairly pricy, putting them towards the high end of the scale. However, this totally aligned with Samsung’s commitment to quality over quantity. And, luckily, it worked out. Despite their higher price tags, edge-lit Samsung TVs proved to be very successful. More than 2 million of the TVs were sold in the first year alone!
These edge-lit TVs were also released in a range of screen sizes, up to 55 inches. At the time, this represented a serious step up in terms of visual scale. Screens would only get larger and larger from here!
And while being much skinnier and much brighter than Samsung’s original plasma screens, these edge-lit displays were also much more energy efficient.
3D TVs Take Over
For a time, 3D TVs were all the rage. With 3D films making billions of pounds in cinemas, Samsung sought a way to bring the 3D cinema experience into the home. This of course lef to the short-lived 3D TV.
Samsung was for a long time one of the biggest proponents for 3D TV technology. In 2010, the company released the first of its many 3D TVs. Initially, these displays sold very well, thanks to the hype around 3D film at the time.
Samsung’s 3D TVs were rather short-lived, when the hype for 3D film died down, so too did the hype for at-home 3D technology. However, for a few years, 3D TVs did prove to be quite successful.
However, sales of 3D TVs very quickly began to dwindle. It didn’t help that 3D TVs came packaged with proprietary 3D glasses that actually needed to be recharged between uses. 3D TVs, over time, proved to be far too much of a hassle to use, and were not able to maintain their momentum.
Samsung’s First Smart TVs
Smart TVs are now Samsung’s bread and butter. The first of the company’s smart models were released in 2011, and allowed users to connect their TVs directly to the internet. Of course with hindsight, we can now say that the invention of the smart TV was a watershed moment. Smart TVs are now found in homes across the world, as they offer easy access to streaming content without having to hook up any external devices or set top boxes!
Samsung’s first smart TVs were initially rather archaic, and offered users basic controls to find select web content on popular streaming services. But, in the years since, the company has massively improved its smart TV technology.
Now, Samsung smart TVs come with the Tizen smart OS built in as standard. The Tizen OS is incredibly robust, and offers a fantastic sense of control. Creating a standardised smart home platform has also helped to make Samsung smart TVs easier to control. Instead of releasing updates for each unique smart TV model, Samsung can instead release an overall system update that improves all available models in one go!
Samsung smart TVs also now support voice controls, so users can connect Amazon Alexa or Google Voice Assistant and control the whole TV with just the power of their voice!
4K Revolutionises TV
4K resolutions are now generally accepted as the standard across the industry. Until 2012, however, the standard was the 1080p resolution.
Samsung 4K TVs are now amongst some of the most popular displays currently on the market. The company first started producing 4K TVs in the early 2010s. It didn’t take long for them to prove popular!
Samsung’s first 4K TV models released around 2012, and were immediately popular. Though they had quite hefty price tags, they represented the very best of UHD technology. Film lovers, binge-watchers, and gamers alike all flocked to these high resolution displays.
SmartThings
Smart homes are no longer just reserved for science fiction. Thanks to smart home platforms like SmartThings, users can create interconnected homes that offer a greater sense of control and security.
SmartThings is Samsung’s very own proprietary smart home technology, and it can be used with the vast majority of Samsung devices and appliances. SmartThings was actually originally developed independent of Samsung, by the SmartThings Inc. company. However, in 2014, Samsung purchased the SmartThings Inc. company, giving them exclusive rights to SmartThings technology.
When connected to SmartThings via the internet, Samsung TVs designed after 2022 can be controlled entirely through the user’s phone! From the SmartThings smartphone app, the user can control the volume and other aspects of the display without having to touch the remote.
SmartThings can even be used to diagnose and troubleshoot technical issues within the TV. This saves users a lot of money that might otherwise be spent on costly repairs, or replacing the TV altogether.
Curved Screens
Another attempt to heighten viewer immersion led Samsung to develop a series of curved TV screens. The first of these screens, released in 2013, promised a more immersive experience, thanks to the image wrapping around the viewer as they watch.
Unfortunately, curved TVs did not prove quite as popular as Samsung expected. While they certainly looked fantastic when viewed from dead-on, they didn’t quite look right from other angles. When viewed at too extreme of an angle, the image on a curved TV ran the risk of appearing distorted.
Curved screens promised greater immersion by surrounding the viewer with the on-screen image. However, though they were popular for a time, they did not have the longevity that Samsung expected.
The curved shape of these TVs also made them take up slightly more space. This meant that it was tougher to find the right spot for a curved TV than a standard flat-screen TV.
OLED Technology
Though OLED TVs were around from as early as 2004, it wasn’t until Samsung iterated on the technology in 2013 that it truly got a chance to shine.
Samsung OLED TVs were immediately very popular, thanks to their lightweight build and high-contrast image quality. And they would only see more and more improvements as new models were released over the coming years.
For instance, many contemporary Samsung OLED TVs come with anti-glare coatings. These keep sunlight and other ambient light from damping the brightness of any on-screen image.
Pixel shift is another technology that has improved the quality-of-life of Samsung OLED TVs. This technology ensures that none of the OLED pixels are ever left overburdened, by slightly adjusting the colour and brightness values in subtle ways periodically while watching. This keeps screen burn-in from occurring.
QLED Technology
QLED technology is actually one of the few TV technologies that Samsung can claim total ownership of. TVs with QLED technology include a special quantum dot layer, capable of rendering more realistic and far richer colours in every image.
Samsung QLED TVs were first released in 2015, but only started utilising the “QLED” name around 2017.
QLED TVs were first created by Samsung, and they’ve had a significant impact since. In fact, Samsung actually manufactures QLED displays that are then used within TV models offered by competing TV brands!
Samsung QLED TVs proved immensely popular with film lovers, thanks to their greater colour accuracy and high brightness levels. They’re fantastic for HDR film and TV content in particular.
Samsung also provides quantum dot technology to a number of competitors, continuing the company’s long tradition of creating parts for other tech businesses!
8K Makes A Case For Itself
By the late 2010s, 4K had fully established itself as the new standard resolution across the market. 4K TVs were finally starting to pick up steam, thanks to lower prices, and greater access to 4K content.
However, by 2019, Samsung was ready to take the next step in resolution! In that year, the company released its first 8K TV models. Samsung 8K TVs have a resolution 4 times as great as Samsung 4K TVs. They’re quite fantastic to look at, but the major hurdle that these TVs have long had trouble overcoming is the limited variety of 8K content.
Even currently, 8K content is very sparse, so many people are unsure what incentive an 8K display could possibly offer.
Samsung improved their range of 8K TVs by developing smart 8K AI upscaling technology. This clever tech can actively analyse and upscale standard HD and 4K content as the user watches it. Essentially, this opened up a whole world of content that finally incentivised those previously on the fence to dive into the world of 8K TVs!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is Samsung So Successful?
Samsung is a company that has been around for a number of decades now. Part of its success can be credited to its early diversification. The company did not just create a small range fo products, but a vast variety. The company also placed an emphasis on quality, which is still upheld to this day. Samsung products are often praised for their fantastic durability.
Is Apple Or Samsung More Scuccessful?
Samsung and Apple most closely compete within the market of smartphones, where Apple currently holds the lead. Apple’s iPhone continues to be immensely popular, and the phone of choice for many people across the world. However, Samsung comes in close second, having previously overtaken market leader Nokia in 2012! Samsung is definitely here to stay!
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