Samsung vs. Apple? Betting on Samsung (AAPL; ETF: EWY)

The Stalwart submits: If we had done a "Predictions for the New Year" post, it would have been about how 2006 will be the year of Samsung (006400.KS) and how they pose a serious threat to Apple (AAPL) as the premier 'digital lifestyle' brand. This thought was first inspired by a November visit to the Samsung gallery in the Time Warner Center near Central Park (pictured).

First note that it's the Samsung Gallery, not the Samsung store; they wouldn't deign to do anything as pedestrian as sell (cough, spit) their products to the public like those philistines down in SoHo do. The products themselves are all things of beauty. An enormous handmade TV made even the horrendous iRobot with Will Smith vaguely watchable. Their MP3 players are as cool, if not cooler looking than the tired, and utterly passe iPods (Even Dick Cheney has one of those!). This is not to mention their phones (TV remote controller, 5 megapixel camera, video camera, and credit card capabilities included), their digital washing machines, or their handheld gameplayers, that can be plugged into a TV for full-screen play.

Furthermore, Samsung is a high tech company. They're not just a Danish-design company making computers. They're investing billions into new chip plants, R&D, and their products will incorporate the technological vanguard. What's with all the hype over Apple using Intel chips about? That they've finally caught up with the times? Hey, Steve Jobs, didn't you hear that AMD has the hot stuff these days?! This is what happens, when you're a tech company at the mercy of other companies to supply you with your, um, technology.

Yes, Apple has a head start, but fashion is fickle thing. In 2006, we predict, Samsung will make large inroads.

We like the way Samsung's own executives see the difference between the two companies as posted in Engadget:

We must admit to getting a bit of a chuckle out of Samsung, whose North American SVP of Marketing Peter Weedfald (the same gentleman attributed with stating Samsung's officially put the kibosh on a dual-mode HD DVD / Blu-ray player for now), who seemed to try and write off Samsung's lukewarm US digital audio player marketshare to dollars in ads: "What's the difference between how they have gone to market and how we have gone to market? It's real simple. They spent $165 million last year to advertise Apple MP3 products. We spent $1 million."

Game on.

Editor's note: US investors can access Samsung via ETF EWY. Details on that here. See also Investing in Korea: 4 Stocks, an iShares ETF and a Closed-End Fund.

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