Mobile phone sales first, why can't Samsung make an operating system?

Text/Wang Xinxi

A few days ago, after Huawei Hongmeng, Xiaomi's self-developed operating system sparked heated discussions in the industry.

At present, many people have questions, why does Samsung, the world's No. 1 mobile phone sales company, have no operating system of its own, and it seems that there is no strong motivation to develop an operating system, what is the reason behind this?

Behind the failure of Samsung's operating system, there is a lack of motivation for long-term investment

In fact, Samsung has been working on the operating system for a long time, and Samsung first made a system called Bada, but because it is not compatible with Android, it was slowly abandoned. Later, on the basis of Bada, Samsung integrated the Meego system initiated by Nokia and developed a system called Tizen.

In 2015, Samsung launched its first phone, the Samsung Z1, with the Tizen system, which was only sold in India. In 2016, the Tizen system once surpassed BlackBerry's BlackBerry system to become the fourth largest mobile phone system in the world. Samsung's last Tizen-powered phone was the Samsung Z4, which was released in 2017. In the following years, since no one wanted to develop software for this system, there was no choice but to change the Tizen OS to a smart wearable system and use it on Samsung smartwatches. However, due to compatibility issues, in the end, Samsung smartwatches abandoned Tizen OS and switched to Google's wear OS.

In 2021, Samsung's own watches have also abandoned the Tizen system, and the Tizen system has failed. Samsung never tried the operating system again.

We may be able to see that Samsung's operating system got up early in the morning, but it did not succeed, and it seems that the determination to invest is not strong enough, and the motivation and determination to develop its own operating system are not strong enough.

Samsung's hardware long board is too long, and the software system short board is too short

Samsung operating system failure, behind one side is the ability problem, Samsung is essentially a hardware company, Samsung Group is involved in many industries, including electronics industry, finance and trade, machinery and heavy industry, building materials, petrochemical, textile and garment, advertising, logistics, medical and many other fields.

To put it simply, Samsung's core business is to do industry, hardware, and software, and it has always lacked some ability, and Samsung is that the hardware long board is too long, and the software short board is too short.

In the past, the reason for Tizen's failure was first of all that the user experience was poor and very difficult to use, which stemmed from Samsung's genes being a hardware company, and the core advantage of Samsung's mobile phones lies in the horizontally integrated supply chain, with chips, memory, batteries, screens and other key components for mobile phone R&D and manufacturing, and almost all supply chain links can be self-sufficient.

But in terms of software ecology, it is its soft board, which is also an aspect of Samsung's mobile phones that have been widely criticized in the Chinese market in the past. The software ecosystem depends on the support of software and hardware vendors. If a system is extremely difficult to develop and the experience is very poor, it will be abandoned by developers.

When Samsung built the system, it was developed together with companies like Intel, because many netizens have long reported that Samsung's software system experience is poor, and Samsung has also launched an improved Android system, but it has been rated by the media as the worst Android system in the past.

If you make a system, if the experience is very good, but no one develops an application for you, it may still be difficult for you to succeed, but the system created by Samsung itself has a poor experience, and it is not good in this link, and it is even more foolish to want to make a big ecology.

In the past in the Chinese market, Samsung once lost in the software operation experience, but in the overseas market, Samsung sold well, because Google's Android native system just made up for Samsung's shortcomings at the system software level.

Android native system + GMS family bucket to make up for Samsung's shortcomings in the software system

The reason is that, overseas, first of all, Samsung's brand and hardware are more well-known. At the level of the operating system system, everyone is unified, Samsung and Xiaomi OV are all using Android native system + Google GMS family bucket. Therefore, when we unify the underlying software and solutions of the operating system, it makes up for Samsung's shortcomings and helps Samsung grow in overseas markets.

Because Samsung has a greater brand awareness overseas, it has a brand advantage over Xiaomi OV, in addition to its advantages in the hardware vertical supply chain, screen, etc., so that it maintains a hardware advantage in overseas competition with Xiaomi OV, and Samsung has a better relationship with giants such as Microsoft and Google, which can achieve more in-depth cooperation and interaction at the marketing level.

In addition, Samsung has channels in various overseas markets, and Samsung's products in other fields are very extensive, and there are a wide range of markets in the world, forming a brand influence covering many fields, which in turn affects the minds of users in various markets around the world.

In addition, Samsung has close cooperation with Google, Microsoft and other large manufacturers, and the cooperation and bundling publicity effect is strong, if it is determined to develop its own operating system, it is precisely to give up the existing advantages.

The capital structure behind Samsung decided that teaming up with Google was the best solution

The big capital behind Samsung is actually American capital, and initially American institutional investors held about 10% of Samsung Electronics' shares, becoming one of Samsung's largest outside shareholders. Samsung's shares were acquired by foreign investors, and later foreign investors accounted for as much as 55% of Samsung Electronics' common shares, of which more than 80% were American chaebol groups, and in the preferred stock ownership structure, 89% of the preferred shares were held by foreign investors, most of which were held by American chaebols.

However, these shares are basically only entitled to dividends, and the actual control is still in the hands of the South Koreans themselves, but most of the profits go to foreign capital led by the United States. Therefore, Samsung's growth is good for American capital, and there is no pressure from sanctions and suppression.

If Samsung promotes its own system, it will inevitably take a lot of effort and will bear the pressure of capital behind it, because it is difficult to spend money to convince capital and developers to support their system ecology. The capital structure behind Samsung decided that teaming up with Google Android was the best solution.

Samsung's sales of such a large volume rely on overseas markets, and the domestic market of South Korea is too small. Samsung has enjoyed the dividends of Android, and Android has also helped Samsung to sit firmly in the world's first place, without Android, Samsung's self-developed system has a very poor experience and software and hardware ecological support, which will inevitably lead to a sharp decline in its global market share. The huge uncertainty brought by the self-developed system is something that Samsung cannot afford.

Samsung is too comfortable to live in the Android camp

We know that mobile phone manufacturers must have felt a sense of crisis when they are determined to make operating systems, whether it is Xiaomi or Huawei in China. Especially Huawei, because of the pressure of the cut off chips and Google's GMS service, whether it is a self-developed chip or an operating system, it is already a battle of life and death, and it has to be done. The determination is very great, because there is no way back, and in this extreme case, the determination to develop the operating system is very strong.

However, Samsung lacks the pressure of this extreme external environment, and has lost the Chinese market and has ranked first in global sales for many years. Therefore, the good sales performance and the international market environment make Samsung lack the determination to fight against the odds.

Samsung has always been in a group mode, the Android Alliance was first founded by several large enterprises, including Samsung, and designated a unified industry standard, and it is also Android that has made Samsung. Samsung is too comfortable to live in the Android camp.

Not only the mobile phone system, at the level of software ecology, Samsung and Microsoft, Google is a very good alliance, the international version of the PC comes with Microsoft software, Microsoft store sells Samsung mobile phones, and Samsung computers use Microsoft systems. On mobile phones, Samsung is also deeply bound to Google, such as Samsung's Android and PC Windows systems have formed an interconnection effect, and Samsung's one UI has also done Android design and optimized UI overseas.

Therefore, this is why, even if Samsung has achieved the world's first mobile phone sales and has dominated the list for many years, Samsung still chooses to embrace Android, and the failure of its own operating system is also reasonable.

Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission