Samsung Storms Back Into U.S. Notebook Market

Irvine, Calif.-based Samsung Electronics of America, which has built a strong presence in the U.S. retail space with consumer electronics like digital cameras and media players, and in the U.S. commercial channel with peripherals like printers, LCDs and storage, is now gunning for a share of the growing, but fragmented, North American notebook market.

Samsung executives say it will give them a more complete overall lineup in its technology offerings in the U.S.

A global electronics giant, with its parent company based in South Korea, Samsung left the U.S. PC space in the 1990s after difficulties with its investment in the failing computer maker AST Research. However, Samsung has continued to enjoy success in the U.S. through its branded business in computer peripherals and components, as well as its OEM business in providing components and peripherals to other manufacturers.

The notebook space in the U.S. is unrecognizable from the last time Samsung sold PCs here more than a decade ago. That market has consolidated on the high end over the past decade with Hewlett-Packard's takeover of Compaq and Acer's takeover of Gateway, as well as IBM's decision to sell its PC business to Lenovo.

Samsung is dividing its new notebook lineup into five "series:"

N Series: Ultra-portable notebooks based on Intel's Atom processor, priced at $499, and built with a 160 GB hard drive and 10.2-inch screen. Because of its LCD, its storage and the performance components built in, the N Series can't be classified as a "Netbook," although its form factor and price would make it competitive with that class.

P Series: Heftier, with higher-performing processors like the Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, the P Series includes models with 14.1-inch and 15.4 inch displays and either could be used for multimedia or higher-end applications. The 14.1-inch system is priced at $1,199 and the 15.4-inch at $1,499. Samsung calls this series "enterprise-ready."

Q Series: Including two models that are both built with glossy, red-and-black cases, either 250 GB or 320 GB of storage, and priced at $1,199 and $1,349, respectively. Samsung calls it an "all-purpose" notebook.

R Series: Which includes one system, the R610-64G, which is built with a 16-inch screen, an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 and an NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS graphics chip. This notebook is priced at $1,049 -- the lower end of the price range for the new Samsung lineup -- despite having the largest LCD. Samsung says this series could be considered a desktop replacement (although some may also put the P Series into that category).

X Series: The highest end of the new Samsung offerings, the X Series includes the X360-34P, priced at $2,499. It's built to weigh 2.8 pounds, and offers a 128 GB Solid State Drive for storage -- the first one in Samsung's lineup with an SSD. This is considered by Samsung to be its "premium" line.

In bringing these notebooks to market, Samsung is taking on some of its bigger OEM customers from recent years -- including Round Rock, Texas-based Dell. However, recent market research by DisplaySearch, among others, suggests that a solid one-fifth of the U.S. notebook space is fragmented among smaller vendors, while Dell, HP, Apple and Toshiba take the lion's share of the market.

As part of its re-entry into the U.S. notebook space, Samsung says its lineup will be available for VARs through distributors including Ingram Micro and D&H Distributing, as well as DMRs CDW, PC Computing, Insight and PC Mall and e-tailers including Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, Buy.com and TigerDirect.