Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX: 005930), the Korean multinational company that accounts for a major portion of the market sales of various electronic products, is planning to create a robots that can be utilized by the education and the industrial sectors. The company, headquartered in Seoul, has already allocated men from the telecommunications department to help around with this new task.
Gadget gurus suggest that this is a new way for the company to generate revenue in a global market where its sales of mobiles, chipsets, and other products are being threatened by many Chinese rivals who to dabble in similar businesses.
A source from within the company also reported that the vice chairman, Oh-Hyun Kwon had recently informed their shareholders that they were willing to divert their attention to Business-to-Business or B2B ventures and tone down their reliance of Business-to-Consumer or B2C businesses to ensure a steadier flow of profits.
Reports that have confirmed this news, haven’t talked about what kind of robot it would be, or whether Samsung was planning to develop it as a joint venture with some other company. The source, however, confirmed that the company was developing an open Internet Of Things or the IoT platform, and branded robots and drones as two of the most important developments of the Internet of Things platform.
Samsung’s recently appointed Chief Executive Officer for mobiles, Ko Dong-Jin, who replaced Shin Jong-Kyun, has also highlighted these recent developments; while at a CES event last month, WP Hong, president of Samsung SDS, demonstrated the growing diversity of products and devices that were aimed at making the Internet of Things platform a popular part of the concept of Smart Homes. At the event, he said that their strategy was to support and encourage “openness, interoperability, and cross-industry collaboration” to flourish.
An executive of Samsung’s local manufacturing partner also said that the “use of robots will be expanded as they will be used for education, industry, health treatment and working with children” and that it will benefit the company which is in an ideal position at the moment.
It was also announced in October 2015, that the South Korean government would work in tandem with the company to aid it in its robot manufacturing business. An investment of $16.75 billion South Korean won (£9.51 million, $13.7 million) will be used to develop the manufacturing of more robotic parts in the country. This seems to be a brilliant step that the company has taken.
