Samsung Electronics is convening a global strategy meeting that will bring together around 200 of the company’s international subsidiary chiefs, according to reports in the Korean press.
The Chosun Ilbo reports the meeting will take place on December 17 and 18 in the cities of Suwon and Giheung in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province.
The meeting will focus on strategies in the face of tough competition from arch-rival Apple as well as how to deal with the global economic downturn, and will come after a Californian court decides whether or not to overturn a $US1.05 billion patent infringement verdict awarded to Apple against the company.
The Korean electronics giant has made it clear it is not planning on following HTC by forging a patent cross-licencing agreement with Apple. “We no longer have any intention of negotiating with Apple about patent issues,” says Samsung Mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun.
The situation with Apple is complicated by the fact that some of Samsung’s subsidiaries are also key suppliers for Apple’s iOS devices, with Samsung slugging Apple with a 20% increase in the price of its processors earlier this week, with Apple searching for alternative suppliers for semiconductors, processors and displays.
Another focus of the meeting will be new guidelines for the tech giant’s worldwide sales network. Earlier this month, SmartCompany reported the consumer electronics conglomerate is planning to launch a major brand overhaul at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January next year.
The senior vice president of Samsung’s Media Solution Center, Kang Tae-jin, recently confirmed the company also wants to use its strong position in the mobile device market to aggressively push into media downloads and software. Despite using Google’s Android platform to power its popular galaxy smartphones and tablets, the company plans to compete against established services from Apple, Google and Amazon.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
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