15 Jaw-Dropping Facts About Samsung

From laptops to refrigerators, Samsung has managed to make itself an essential part of homes around the world. They have repeatedly flaunted their entrepreneurial prowess by outdoing the competition with their impressive versatility. Their tenacious approach to manufacturing has allowed them to branch out into a stunning array of business ventures.

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Based in South Korea, this manufacturing giant has managed to dominate the world by producing quality products varying from appliances to ships. The last few years have brought forth an amazing transformation for this innovative company. They managed to go full throttle into branching out while still maintaining the quality that customers trust. While Samsung has long been known for their back-to-back releases there are many things about this company that would shock & surprise you. We came up with this list to shed light on one of the most influential companies in the world. Sit back & enjoy the raw facts about this international powerhouse.

Discover the Facts About Samsung’s Immense Power

From laptops to refrigerators, Samsung has managed to make itself an essential part of homes around the world. They have repeatedly flaunted their entrepreneurial prowess by outdoing the competition with their impressive versatility. Their tenacious approach to manufacturing has allowed them to branch out into a stunning array of business ventures. Based in South Korea, this manufacturing giant has managed to dominate the world by producing quality products varying from appliances to ships. The last few years have brought forth an amazing transformation for this innovative company. They managed to go full throttle into branching out while still maintaining the quality that customers trust. While Samsung has long been known for their back-to-back releases there are many things about this company that would shock & surprise you. We came up with this list to shed light on one of the most influential companies in the world. Sit back & enjoy the raw facts about this international powerhouse.

1. Humble Beginnings

Things weren’t always easy for the company, they arose from cramped economic conditions to become one of the most influential companies on the planet. In 1938 they started out as Samsung Sanghoe, a grocery trading company. They traded fish products & had only 40 employees who made their own noodles. It’s truly amazing that in 80 years they could evolve into one of the most powerful companies in the world.

2. Samsung has 267,000 employees

While some of you might already know this, the Korean company is way more than just an electronics and mobile producer. The Samsung Group has 59 unlisted companies and 19 listed, all with their primary listings on the Korean exchange. These companies range from shipbuilding to construction, financial services, and even medical industries. It has over 267,000 people as of 2020, across 80 different countries, including Korea.

Yet another fun fact is that Samsung’s construction division built the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, the tallest building in the world at 2,722 feet.

3. TV was Samsung Electronics’ first product

The first electronics product ever produced by this company was a black and white TV in 1970. The company expanded a great deal in the following decades, and in 1986 entered into the mobile game with a car phone. While Samsung’s early TV efforts were quite successful, the first cell/car phone from the company was poorly received and sold terribly.

4. Samsung changed its logo 3 times

While the Samsung logo changed a few times before the 70s, it stayed pretty consistent after this. It has significantly changed only three times. The current logo came into existence in 2005. As you can see above, there have been seven logos since Samsung’s inception. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

5. South Korea’s 15% of GDP comes from Samsung

As there are many companies and countries that are part of the Samsung Group. All those subsidiaries and workers mean the company takes up a massive amount of the total GDP of its home country, South Korea. In 2017, CNN reported the total resources of the Samsung Group made up about 15% of the country’s GDP. Over 20% of its market value is based on various Samsung Group companies on the Korean Stock Exchange. Most of that comes from just one company, Samsung Electronics.

6. In 1993 Samsung Electronics come into existence

While Samsung has been in this electronics and mobile industry for many decades now, in 1993, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee (above) pushed forward a new management philosophy encouraging product quality as one of its core tenets. He encouraged his staff to “change everything except for their family.” To further promote this notion, Samsung’s Human Resource Development Center created new training and development courses to help with this professional growth.

7. In 1995 it actually took off

Saying you’re going to focus on quality and taking that all-important step across the threshold are often two different things, and they indeed were for Samsung. In 1995, Kun-hee Lee would reportedly find himself frustrated with the quality of his products and the company’s lack of change. To drive his point home, numerous phones were stacked up high, joined by televisions, fax machines, and other gear. Lee and his board of directors then proceeded to destroy each of these products, even going so far as to break the cases and screens using heavy hammers.

As the story goes, Lee made sure around 2000 employees witnessed this. That day, more than $50 million worth of hardware was destroyed, and a new Samsung was finally born. Following this, the era of “new management” truly began, marked by rapid growth and global success, which has only continued to gain momentum in the decades to follow.

Samsung fans can thank Lee and his board, and their willingness to perform an extreme drop test, for the products they enjoy today. Since that day, they’ve certainly created a number of firsts in the electronic industry.

8. SCH-100 was the first CDMA phone

This phone was released in 1996, making it the first phone to utilize CDMA technology. Being the first to use a standard many see as restrictive and inferior to GSM probably isn’t much to brag about now. At the time, CDMA was a new technology and — before fast 4G/LTE technologies — actually had some real advantages over GSM.

9. SPH-WP10 was the first watch phone of Samsung

Some Gear family variants have allowed you to text or even make calls without tethering your phone, but the watch phone market began much earlier in 1999. Samsung was the first pioneer, and one of the only ones since, to build a watch that doubled as a phone — dubbed the Samsung SPH-WP10.

This amazing watch phone could not only tell time but also make phone calls for up to 90 minutes. After that, the battery was depleted, and you’d have to run over to a charger. The screen was of the back-lit monochrome LCD variety, and there were physical buttons for navigating around the menu. There were even voice commands for dialing your contacts — fancy.

10. SPH-i2300 was Samsung’s first smartphone

Samsung may not be the first to make a smartphone, but it was one of the first players to truly get aggressive about the market, introducing the first “PDA phone” with a color display in the U.S. market in 2001. Called the SPH-i300, this bad boy was designed for Sprint’s network and ran on Palm OS, with all the functions of a standard PDA, with the added bonus of making calls.

So, the SPH-i300 can be considered Samsung’s first go at making “a smartphone” for the U.S. market. Although, things sure have changed a lot since then.

11. E1110 is Samsung’s top-selling phone

Samsung’s top-selling mobile phone of all time may not be what you think it is. It’s actually the Samsung E1110, a feature phone from 2009. By the time production of the phone ended in 2012, Samsung had sold a whopping 150 million units. That makes this device the 6th best-selling mobile phone of all time.

12. Galaxy S4 is Samsung’s best-selling Android phone

The second-best-selling Samsung phone is the Galaxy S4 (actually tied with the Galaxy S3), with 70 million total sales. It’s the best-selling smartphone of all time and the best-selling Android-based phone of all time.

13. Giving Apple a Run for Their Money

There is a heated rivalry between Apple & Samsung. While Apple still dominates smartphone sales in the United States, Samsung is the undisputed champion of South Korea’s smartphone sales. A whopping 60% of South Koreans buy Samsung smartphones & 40% of American’s choose Apple. Samsung is still close to the top of the list of American smartphone suppliers with a sturdy 26%. Even though Apple controls the American cellphone market, Samsung still dwarfs them with the sheer size & diversity of their company.

14. Samsung had a chance to buy Androids

Do you know Samsung had a chance to purchase the startup responsible for the operating system Andorid.

Back in late 2004, Android’s founders were looking for money to keep their startup going. All of Android’s eight-team members flew to South Korea to meet with 20 of Samsung’s executives. The Android team displayed before Samsung executives their plans for an OS designed for mobile phones.

However, according to quotes from Android co-founder Andy Rubin, the immediate response from Samsung’s team following the presentation was complete silence. They expressed disbelief that this small startup would be able to make this kind of operating system.

Just two weeks later, in early 2005, Rubin and the Android team made their pitch to Google, which decided to acquire the startup for $50 million. The rest is history, as Google and the Android team developed the OS and officially launched it in October 2008.

15. Samsung jumped into the smartphone industry long before Android and iOS

Samsung may not be the first to make a smartphone, but it was one of the first players to aggressively take the market, introducing the first “PDA phone” with a color display in the U.S. market in 2001. Called the SPH-i300, this phone was designed for Sprint’s network and ran on Palm OS, with all the functions of a normal PDA, with the added bonus of making calls. So yes, the SPH-i300 can basically be considered Samsung’s first go at making “a smartphone” for the U.S. market. Things sure have changed a lot since then.

Synopsis

Whether you’re a Samsung fan or not, the company has an interesting past, with its fair share of successes and failures. So above listed are some of the most interesting past of the technology tycoon that you must know.