Samsung: "We want a piece of the audio market"

Various senior Samsung executives have gone on record to say the audio market is a big focus for the company, which wants to be considered a "traditional audio brand", expand the sector and "improve the audio performance within it".

Speaking to trade title ERT, Samsung UK and Ireland president Andy Griffiths said: "We’re going to be big in audio and we’re going to grow that market. I’m thrilled that audio is going to make a comeback as a market – we’re giving it a lot of investment and a lot of resource."

Certainly the company's recent Shape Audio multi-room system impressed us, with the M5 and the M7 performing well as individual wireless speakers, too. Meanwhile, CES saw Samsung reveal a new range of omni-directional speakers, which will also work with the M Series speakers.

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Improving audio performance

Michael Zoeller, Samsung’s European sales and marketing director for TV/AV, thinks Samsung should be considered as an audio brand: "I still feel Samsung has not been seen as a traditional audio brand. Maybe this is because of our strength in mobile and TV. But we are about to change that."

Robert King, vice-president of consumer electronics at Samsung UK and Ireland, added: "We see audio as a tremendous opportunity. The whole audio market is really regenerating with the emergence of the wireless, multi-room speaker set-up and how, where and when people want their music. We think there’s a great opportunity to expand that market and improve the audio performance within it."

It's fighting talk from a company that clearly has Sonos in its sights when it comes to the increasingly competitive multi-room audio market. And with Samsung reportedly spending $40 million per day on research and development, the audio arm of the electronics giant clearly won't be short of investment.

But whether it will be enough to deliver top-class audio products and change consumer perception is something that remains to be seen - although we certainly look forward to getting our hands on Samsung's new audio products and finding out...

MORE: Multi-room music systems - everything you need to know

[via ERT]

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff and The Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).