Samsung expects demand for consumer electronics to remain sluggish throughout the first half of the year due to rising interest rates and high inflation. However, the company expects the industry to start recovering in the second half of 2023 and views the recent downturn as an opportunity in disguise.
“A crisis usually creates a new opportunity. When everything’s stable, it’s hard to shake up the market order,” said Jong-Hee Han, head of the Samsung DX (Device eXperience) division, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The Co-CEO believes that the recent hurdles gave Samsung a new purpose to unify its device ecosystem and create richer connected experiences.
With this goal in mind and Mr. Han at the helm, Samsung founded DX in December 2021 by unifying the Digital Appliances (home appliances), Health & Medical Equipment, MX Business (Mobile eXperience), Visual Display (TV), and Samsung Networks divisions.
Overcoming the crisis through Samsung DX and “calm technology”
Before the DX division came about, Samsung’s various branches operated somewhat independently. Although this approach fostered internal competition, it also hindered the company’s efforts to create products that seamlessly work with each other. Internal conflicts between various Samsung divisions and their goals have held the company back. The strategy worked for the better part of the 2010s. But today, many analysts believe that smartphones, for example, can no longer make a big enough impact on the market as long as their primary or only focus is to deliver great specs in a vacuum. There needs to be more.