Can Samsung channel success?

As the Korean titan makes a major channel land-grab, CRN's Sam Trendall looks at how it may stack up against incumbent enterprise giants

Despite its huge success in the mobile device market in the last two years, Samsung largely remains a bit-part player at best in the enterprise IT kitbag of most channel players. But the Korean giant has big plans to make a much bigger impression in the B2B space, having spent more than a year steadily trying to boost its credentials in the market ahead of the launch of a global partner scheme today.

It will be interesting to see how it approaches a channel that has had its share of grief from PC makers in recent years. Acer is the most famous - but surely not the only - example of a vendor to have suffered from the fallout of declining sales and a bloated inventory. And resellers will need no reminding of the unedifying ‘will they-won't they?' saga of HP's half-cocked attempt to exit the market.

Meanwhile Apple seems to engage more or less on its own terms with pretty much everyone who wants to buy or sell its products, such is the clamour for its wares. Samsung has already emulated the Mac-maker's success in creating tremendous consumer demand for its kit, even launching a range of stores this year - including up to 40 in the UK in partnership with Carphone Warehouse.

The Galaxy manufacturer will be hoping the demand for its products is impossible for resellers to ignore. VARs, meanwhile, will be hoping Samsung is equally unable to overlook the channel in the way Apple has often been accused of doing.

Sam Trendall is special projects editor at CRN