Recently I wanted to buy a pc monitor and I was checking Samsung M8 smart monitor which can be used as stand alone to watch Netflix etc.
The thing is I couldn’t find it anywhere so I went ahead and bought a 55inch LG OLED TV instead.
Then while I was reading reviews, I saw everyone complaining about sound quality(for me sound quality was fine for 48inch version which I bought 7 months ago in my home country) so I wanted to invest a little bit more and buy a soundbar. But to my surprise again Samsung soundbars are not available in Japan but LG soundbars are.
Is there a specific reason for it ? As far as I know both LG and Samsung are Korean cheabols but the treatment is different.
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Why there are no Hyundai, Kia cars in Japan?
I think the government of Japan embargoed Samsung due to some alleged IP theft of their domestic display technology. Samsung SSDs are here though despite Samsung’s prominence in NAND Flash technology was them hiring away all the memory Engineers that Toshiba abandoned because Toshiba thought Nand flash would flop and decided to invest in Nuclear Energy with the westinghouse merger. What a great idea that turned out to be.
I don’t even know Samsung is still producing monitor. I didn’t see any Samsung monitor in my home country too.
Could they just have their products branded differently? Like same products but sold under a different brand specific to Japan?
I know Samsung phones are available in Japan, but they’re called just “Galaxy” instead of “Samsung Galaxy”, presumably due to potentially negative perception of the Korean-sounding Samsung in Japan. Japanese mostly seem to think anything Korean-, Taiwan- or China-made is of inferior quality to something made in Japan, Europe or the US.
I’d heard that there was an agreement with a Japanese company (Sony?) that they wouldn’t invade each other’s territory – can’t even remember who told me though, so don’t take that as gospel.
Basically, Samsung had tried previously to enter the market and were rebuffed(in relation to TV’s), failing to capture any significant market share(<1%). Because of this they pulled out of Japan. Instead, in markets where JP manufacturers are strong, they tend to supply components. In areas where they are the “undisputed” leader(flash memory, Android phones), they continue to sell their product.
Like it or not, the JDM heavily favours domestic manufacturers. I know a lot of people want to call this racism, but supporting domestic manufacturing is important.
Currently, Japan is restricting exports of certain chemicals used in display and semi-conductor manufacturing, but Samsung itself is not under any trade restrictions. In fact, the government(JP) made a special exception for Samsung to allow a one-time shipment shortly after S. Korea was removed from the trading whitelist.
Edit: If you have the space, look into getting some bookshelf speakers! Yahoo Auctions has all kinds of great vintage audio equipment that absolutely destroy any soundbar. You can get a pair of diatones, and an AVR for under 10,000(maybe 15 with shipping). Tradeoff is size of course, but it’s definitely worth it. Unless you have paper walls.
I am literally typing this reply on a Samsung Galaxy I bought from an au shop.
Basically, Samsung looked at Japan’s market and decided the only products worth bringing over were their smartphones.
For other products the domestic brands or more prestigious brands, think BOSE, have too much of the market share/brand loyalty.
If you are selling something to consumers that already exists and Japanese companies already sell, in general Japan is just not a market worth entering.
Why spend a ton of money trying to compete with rivals in their home market when you can market your products to the billions of people outside of Japan?