by Ewan Spence
Congratulations Samsung, you made it. Top of the heap, number one, head honcho, the big man in the room, the all conquering mobile phone manufacturer. The King that was Nokia is no more, Samsung are now the number one mobile phone manufacturer on the planet.
That was the easy bit. Now they need to stay there, which is a different challenge altogether, and one that many companies have had to face up to before. One slip up in strategy and planning can start a chain reaction that could be masked by the market until the cliff face is reached. Just ask Nokia.
Samsung have many things to be careful of over the next few years, but there are three that cover the biggest areas of risk and opportunity.
The first is their mobile phone operating system. Right now they are the arguably the lead Android handset manufacturer, and their Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets are reliant on Google’s OS. Of course the future of Android is not especially clear in the medium to long term. Samsung have already been caught out by being part of a collective group of manufacturers within a mobile phone ecosystem (Symbian), so they are well aware of the dangers of one party suddenly gaining more power and influence over the other partners.
