Samsung halts consumer sales in Japan
updated 01:05 pm EST, Fri November 9, 2007
Samsung halts Japan sales
In a move potentially surprising to foreign observers, Korean giant Samsung has declared that it will no longer sell any consumer goods (such as TVs and MP3 players) to the Japanese market. While the company has been phenomenally successful in regions such as the US and Europe, beating out many rivals, the Japanese market has been extremely tough; this, says the Associated Press, is attributable to intense competition from native electronics makers such as Sony, Sharp and Panasonic. Samsung will instead concentrate on business-to-business sales within the country, which last year amounted to over 99 percent of $9 billion.
Despite today's formal announcement, Samsung has been gradually withdrawing its consumer presence from Japan for some time. Internet sales came to a halt at the end of October, and retail sales were stopped in August of 2006. The closest the company will now come to the consumer market is the supply of phones for telecom operator Softbank.
