By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Samsung's had another landmark year at the International CES 2017 with stunning new QOLED and Lifestyle TVs that bring simple yet remarkable mounting solutions to make TVs less like appliances and more like fine, functional objets d'art. The company has also made some compelling washer and dryer innovations.
While there were no notable mobile or Galaxy announcements (seems they are saving that for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona), the company did make some huge announcements in the PC space. Most notably, Samsung's ready to square off with Alienware, Razer, ROG and other gaming hardware manufacturers with their newly announced Odyssey gaming notebooks.
Earlier experiences of poor sales in the Chromebook market might keep the premium Samsung Chromebook Pro from making it to Canada.
Samsung also turned some heads with its new Chromebooks, most interesting of which were the Chromebook Pro and Chromebook Plus, which are premium metal Chromebooks offering 360' articulation to convert from tablet to notebook that even integrate the SPen for input and can even run smartphone apps in Chrome tablet mode.
Unfortunately, we learned earlier today from Samsung Canada EVP Paul Brennan that Samsung isn't looking to bring these new products to Canada right away.
"We do not have any definitive plans to bring the gaming PC's to Canada," Brennan said in a phone interview with Canadian Reviewer. "Samsung has had experience with the PC industry in Canada before as well as globally and it has been a tougher market for us to compete in," he added.
"We want to lead with innovation," Brennan explained. "We're very aggressive in gaming monitors in the Canadian marketplace and we're exploring conversations with retailers in Canada if there's an interest to look at these gaming PCs."
When asked about the new Chromebook Pro and Plus models, Brennan said," We had Chromebook in Canada before and we found that it became very much a commodity-based industry. If you build innovation into technology that's commodity-based and are challenged in a marketplace like Canada it's hard to get to that critical mass."
Brennan did confirm that Samsung has been working with Google to allow various smartphone apps to work natively on the Chromebooks. "I think what we're doing with Google in allowing utilization of apps from your phone on to that Chromebook is a really interesting play. It is something else we're exploring at the same time whether we want to re-enter the Chromebook market in Canada."
Samsung is looking to bring some joy to mid-range and pre-paid Canadian users this March when it launches the Galaxy A5, a mid-tier smartphone that actually carries over various high-end features from the Galaxy S and Note lines. As a fan of smaller handsets, it will be great to see this 4.7-inch device come to the Canadian market in a competitive price point.