Certainly smaller businesses in Korea do poorly. Maybe there is a generation of startups we are missing.
Samsung though, is leading the world in a number of areas. It makes processor chips, it makes flash memory. I think it's the only important cell phone brand other than Apple that isn't based in China. It wins in areas where (say) Sony fails.
People in the US might ask why there are no heavy forges in the US but there are heavy forges in Korea? ASML not withstanding, Europeans would like to have an electronics industry. Anybody who thinks they'd like to subsidize some business and turn it into a world beater would probably be envious of Korea.
That said, I understand that many young Koreans perceive the country to be "Hell Joseon" and immigrate to places like the US where they perceive you can get ahead if you don't get hired by Samsung. Contrast that to Japan which is said by some to be economically and culturally stagnant but doesn't have a mass exodus.
The strange thing with Sony is that they don't even seem to try in the mobile market. For years they're putting out phones that are overpriced, have very poor software support duration and focus on gimmicky features like 4K screens that are almost never actually used as such.
As a result they occupy only a tiny niche of the market but they keep going on as they are. Like they don't even care.
It's a shame because they made great stuff. My Z4 Tablet with its Bluetooth laptop dock is the most useful mini laptop I've ever had. Never saw a successor though :'(
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Certainly smaller businesses in Korea do poorly. Maybe there is a generation of startups we are missing.
Samsung though, is leading the world in a number of areas. It makes processor chips, it makes flash memory. I think it's the only important cell phone brand other than Apple that isn't based in China. It wins in areas where (say) Sony fails.
People in the US might ask why there are no heavy forges in the US but there are heavy forges in Korea? ASML not withstanding, Europeans would like to have an electronics industry. Anybody who thinks they'd like to subsidize some business and turn it into a world beater would probably be envious of Korea.
That said, I understand that many young Koreans perceive the country to be "Hell Joseon" and immigrate to places like the US where they perceive you can get ahead if you don't get hired by Samsung. Contrast that to Japan which is said by some to be economically and culturally stagnant but doesn't have a mass exodus.
The strange thing with Sony is that they don't even seem to try in the mobile market. For years they're putting out phones that are overpriced, have very poor software support duration and focus on gimmicky features like 4K screens that are almost never actually used as such.
As a result they occupy only a tiny niche of the market but they keep going on as they are. Like they don't even care.
It's a shame because they made great stuff. My Z4 Tablet with its Bluetooth laptop dock is the most useful mini laptop I've ever had. Never saw a successor though :'(