South Korean tech giant Samsung, which is not exactly known for enterprise products and services, is gearing up to launch its assault on the local business space with tablet PCs as its weapon of choice.
At the recent CXO Innovation Summit organized by tech distributor VST ECS at Boracay Shangri-la Resort and Hotel, Samsung Corp. global executive David Kim said the company sees its new tablet offerings as a productivity tool suited with the forthcoming arrival of 5G wireless technology.
“As we move into new technology era, we see a lot of opportunities. Since 5G is designed for machine-to-machine, it is important that you have the right device to distribute and gather information,” said Kim, a Korean-American who was one of the earliest employees of tech titan Cisco in Silicon Valley before being offered to work as an expat in Samsung’s home country.
Kim said Samung will tap its expertise in the consumer sector to bring the intuitiveness of its products to the enterprise market. Tablets, he said, will be perfect gadgets for business professionals to use 5G technology via VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), as well as Internet-of-Things (IoT).
“We’re in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution with 5G as the main enabler. The world is going to really change in front of our eyes. And Philippines is one of the countries which we believe will have this sort of infrastructure,” said Kim.
“We want to be a partner to make sure that the 5G transformation takes place together with the Philippine government, operators, and business leaders,” he said, adding that Samsung is currently negotiating with local telcos Globe Telecom and Smart Communications to bring its 5G technology in the country.
As security is a vital requirement in business, the executive said Samung has poured a large amount of investment on security over the past two years, particularly on Samsung Knox, which is an enterprise mobile security solution pre-installed in most of Samsung’s smartphones, tablets, and wearables.
“We can provide multiple ways for you to access and customize your device. We make it unique for you to make sure that the passwords or fingerprint biometrics will only belong to you,” Kim said.
Aside from businesses, Kim said players in the public safety space as ambulances, fire stations, police personnel, and disaster responders lack the necessary equipment in their trade to become effective in the work.
“They can’t do it very efficiently because of various reasons. So, if you if you tell somebody that there’s a huge fire today, there’s no channel that is dedicated for people to communicate for mission-critical public safety,” he noted.
“This is why we’re working with operators and governments to solve this problem. There are some countries where we have won several deals so far. We are working on how to put together a help desk that is dedicated for public safety means. We’ll be using devices that are very durable, waterproof, and have specific keypads capable for public safety,” Kim said.
