Digital Darwinism
I don't know. Sure, Samsung is doing some great work - a new cell phone every two weeks since September? Talk about a persistent state of launch mode. But Peter Weedfald's keynote yesterday morning struck me as a little, well, 1998.
Partly, it was his confidence, which bordered on arrogance. While he didn't really share much that was new or different, he did act like he'd come down from the mountain to tell us the real deal. Which was... what? That the Internet is important? Where's Ol' Saint Nick Negroponte when we need him?
Andrew K.'s comment is pretty spot on. Did the catch phrases and 50-cent words cloud his meaning? That said, I did appreciate two of his points:
One, CRM should stand for "customers really matter." And two, the whole idea of owning the first inch through the glass - as in reaching from the consumer into the network - is a sweet spot indeed. Samsung doesn't need to be in the content or distribution business. If they can continue to create the devices we use to access the Net - be they cell phones, displays, or microwaves - they'll do just fine.
(A more complete partial transcript is also available.)
