Samsung Eyes Entry Into Lucrative Automotive Market With SoCs, Image Sensors, OLED Displays

As demand in certain markets begins to slow, some companies have shifted much of their focus over to the automotive sector. However, expecting immediate success there would be unwise. The automotive market is notoriously tough egg to crack, as long-standing agreements are hard to break, and the decision to bring someone new in isn't taken lightly - we're dealing with machines that could cost someone their life if something went wrong, after all.

While some companies have been on top of things, such as NVIDIA, and even Apple (despite nothing having been announced yet), other companies are learning about the benefits of succeeding in this lucrative market a bit late. A good example is Samsung, which is hoping to make a big impact sooner rather than later.

From phones and TVs and soon to vehicles

Since 2010, Samsung and its related companies have filed some 1,800 patents, and of those, two-thirds have been related to electric vehicles and their components. Those patents began rolling in years ago, so it would seem like Samsung was actually ahead of the curve, but in this particular market, things do not move quickly. Ideally, the company would have begun its R&D years earlier.

As it stands today, it sounds like Samsung's biggest goals will simply be offering great experiences in the "connected" car. There's no word about autonomous driving, which in itself is an extremely lucrative aspect of the automotive market. Google, NVIDIA, Tesla, and Apple, are a handful of companies that are working on such technologies, so competition is far from slim.

What could be considered slim is top-rate talent, of which Tesla and Apple have been notably snatching up as fast as possible. If Samsung wants to truly compete, it will need to go down the same road, unless of course it already has sufficient talent and this is all but a waiting game at this point.