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Hoser

Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:57 am Post subject: Ever seen this MP3 player in Japan? |
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It's a Samsung P2. It's Bluetooth capable and Samsung has been issuing a lot of firmware updates which add a lot of goodness to the player (including one next month which is supposed to add subway maps (and possibly train times) to 24 major cities in the world including Tokyo.) However every time I go into Bic Camera I have NEVER seen this MP3 player. I don't get it. Samsung is a huge brand isn't it? WHy would they not have it? Has anyone else seen one of these out in the wild?
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ripslyme

Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 481 Location: Japan
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think it has been released in Japan yet. |
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vancouver_syndicate
Joined: 09 Sep 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:58 am Post subject: |
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samsung is actually leaving the japanese market. the only products they'll be selling are cell phones |
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Wintermute
Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 79
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:51 am Post subject: |
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Samsung has been gone for a while now (since about September last year). They used to sell their TV's in Yodobashi Camera in 2006 but their stock started to disappear. After that they had a direct order shop on the internet (I bought my TV from it), you could also buy MP3 players and PC monitors too. They shut the website down though, it's just an information site now. They used to have a contract before to make Sony Bravia LCD panels which mave have had an effect on them competing in the Japanese market. not sure about now though.
Edit - According to some reports at the time:
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While Koreans and Japanese haven't always been best of chums *cough* the reason Samsung is citing for the withdrawal is poor profitability. In short, Samsung - by great contrast to its price slashing dominance in the UK - has found it impossible to outmuscle Matsushita, Sony and Sharp in Japan without losing all margins.
"We judged direct sales to individual consumers are less profitable than business-to-business sales," said Sammy spokeswoman Lee Eun-hee, in an ultra concise statement.
So what do we mean by consumer products? Pretty much everything you can expect to see on TR: TVs, DVD/Blu-ray players, MP3 players, cameras, the works. It will continue to sell monitors, LCDs and mobile phones to corporate clients however and supply components to third parties.
To my surprise, this isn't out of the blue either. Lee admitted Samsung stopped selling to Japanese retail outlets in August last year while online sales came to an end last month.
Can anything be read into this? Not really, Japan is a notoriously closed market (just ask Microsoft) so failure to make headway in this region is hardly shocking. That said, when a company as buoyant, internationally successful and progressive as Samsung has been in the last few years throws in the towel what chance do the rest have. |
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ripslyme

Joined: 29 Jan 2005 Posts: 481 Location: Japan
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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I didn't know they're leaving/they left Japan. Wow!  |
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Hoser

Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:59 am Post subject: |
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That's just craziness!! Japan must be one of the biggest markets in the world for MP3 players! Oh well I guess I'll have to pick one up in Canada when I visit in July-perhaps my ardor for it will have cooled by then. |
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