The Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull, a celebrated Korean entrepreneur. Now it is the world's largest conglomerate and consists of many international businesses, with Samsung Electronics, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Samsung Engineering & Construction being the Group’s core. These three subsidiaries reflect the very name of Samsung – in Korean word Samsung means "tristar" or "three stars".
Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969 in South Korea and first manufactured electronic appliances such as calculators, refrigerators, washers, air conditioners and black-and-white TVs. In the 60-70s the company was a beneficiary of a government policy of economic growth and development. The government worked with the companies, providing protection from competition. So, by the 1980s Samsung was manufacturing, shipping, and selling a wide range of appliances and electronic products throughout the world.
Samsung entered into the semiconductor business was in the mid-1970s. Lee Kun Hee who in 1987 took over his father, Lee Byung Chull, understood great importance of this industry for the future of the company and he wasn’t mistaken. Now Samsung Electronics is the world's biggest maker of memory chips, having developed world's first 60-nano 8GB NAND Flash memory chip in 2004 and the world's first 30nm-class 64Gb NAND Flash™ memory in 2007. It produces now SD (Secure Digital) memory cards.
As to photo cameras, Samsung Electronics released their first camera in 1979. Samsung SF-A was a simple point-and-shoot aimed at the mass consumer. The company dealt primarily with budget easy-to-use cameras. In 1995 they began collaboration with Schneider-Kreuznach, German optic manufacturer, and up to now their optics are found on Samsung cameras.
The first DSLR from Samsung was a film DSLR SR4000. It was supposed to collaborate with other famous manufacturers but it didn’t have any really catching features, so it failed to be a strong rival.
Samsung went digital in 1994 by producing their first digital camera Samsung SSC-410N. Looking more like binoculars it featured 1/3” CCD and the resolution of 768*484 pixels. But really challenging cameras were exhibited at PMA 2002, for instance, Samsung Digimax 230 featured 2 megapixels and 3x zoom.
Samsung is now famous for their cameraphones that house plenty-of-megapixels cameras. In 2006 the company also launched first Samsung-branded DSLR - GX-1S, a 10 mpx semi-pro – as a result of collaboration with the Pentax Company.
Samsung Electronics is the global market leader in more than 60 products, including Semiconductors such as Flash Memory and Hard Drives, Digital Displays, Home Electronics, Mobile Devices, Digital Cameras and Camcorders, Computing Products, Laser Printers and Home Appliances.
