Silicon Insider: The Solid State of Samsung
May 25, 2006 — -- Though you will likely never see them, two new Samsung laptops are about to mark a turning point in the history of computing.
Reportedly, in the next few weeks, the South Korean electronics giant will formally introduce two new laptop computers, the models Q1 and Q30. At first glance, they seem like nothing special -- 32 gigabytes of memory storage, low-resolution screen, uninteresting packaging -- the kind of second-rate laptop you see on sale every day at Wal-Mart and stereo superstores for 700 bucks.
So what makes these dreary little laptops worth their jaw-dropping predicted retail prices of $2,430 and $3,700? They have no disk drives! We're talking 32 gigs of flash semiconductor memory -- creating the world's first solid-state laptop computers. The only moving parts will be your fingers.
Given the pace of technological innovation, this news will likely be met with a polite golf clap, and we'll move on to the Next Big Thing. But instead, at least for the time it takes to finish this column, let's stop and ponder what this announcement means.
First, let's take the computers themselves. As I said, you'll likely never see them: The Q1 and Q30 are classic examples of experimental tech products whose price and performance are such that they will only be sold to a limited audience in a controlled market. In this case, the two Samsung laptops are expected to be sold only in the company's home Korean market.
That's not a bad move by Samsung. These days the Far East is the world's hottest market for new consumer electronics, home to the most rabid early adopters of the latest new gizmos. If you want to test out a new product design, South Korea is as good a place as anywhere to do it: Koreans will buy these two laptops just for the social cachet of owning them.
Moreover, by keeping the machines in Korea, Samsung can also control their distribution, making it as difficult as possible for competitors to buy and take them apart, as well as maintain a controlled field test to look for problems with the memory, consumer attitudes and so forth. Marketing a crappy machine around the world that might contain some fatal but unseen flaw would be a great way to kill the solid-state laptop industry even before it is born. Keeping them close by probably eliminates this possibility.
So why even build these computers at all? Why doesn't Samsung just wait until it has a laptop to match the innovations within and -- after a few more months of Moore's Law ticking away at chip prices -- at a competitive price?
