Can Samsung crack the iPod market?

IT WOULD SEEM a perfectly logical ambition for Korea's Samsung to set itself a goal of toppling Apple from its dominance of the MP3 player market. Given its obvious expertise in manufacturing high quality electronic devices, of course. Plus it's the only leading vendor to have introduced a mobile phone with a hard disk, so far.

Most observers question whether Samsung possesses the correct degree of 'cool' to displace the Apple brand. Yet Samsung's YP-W3, which is a limited edition white gold-plated MP3 pocket watch with diamond trim and scratch-resistant sapphire glass, sold out within three days. The INQ would argue, however, that software - and the UI (user interface) in particular are Samsung's main problems.

Samsung recently handed out its YP-T7 MP3 player to droves of journalists, including the INQ, at the CeBIT show. This particular product highlighted Samsung's problems precisely. The YP-T7's technical specifications are excellent. It plays music, it offers an FM radio and can even record MP3s for you.

Yet the UI can best be described as 'counter-intuitive'. The user manual constantly resides in your lap as you desperately try to benefit from all of its capabilities. Just try using it as an alarm clock, for example. This needn't be so. There's nothing wrong with Samsung's mobile phone UI - although one suspects it initially borrowed heavily from Nokia.

If Samsung can radically improve its MP3 UI, then it stands a chance. What it really needs is the kind of technical advantage that introducing dual screen mobile phones gave it in the handset sector.

How about a range of Bluetooth enabled headsets? You can already buy sunglasses with an MP3 player built in, so why not offer Bluetooth sunglasses with an MP3 player. How cool is that?

To counter Apple, Samsung's range of MP3 players are employing the Yepp brand and are being produced by its Bluetek division. The head of Bluetek, Ahn Tai-ho, has set himself a sales target to over 5 million units in 2005 and an ambition of becoming the world's top MP3 player supplier by 2007. We'll see. µ