After several delays, CDN has learned that Samsung Canada will launch Samsung-branded notebooks and netbooks in the Canadian market on July 12th.
Samsung has already launched a branded notebook line in the Asian market and, last fall, entered the U.S. market with a line of Samsung-branded ultralight notebooks designed to compete with products such as Apple’s Macbook Air and some of Austek’s ultralight offerings.
The vendor had earlier indicated it was working toward a Q1 launch, but Ron Hulse, vice-president, IT Marketing for Samsung Electronics Canada, told CDN in April that the challenging economy and a desire to rethink the business case as part of a more integrated product and services play had delayed the launch to the second half of 2009.
“We’re still in the planning process, and it’s still our full intention to (launch in Canada),” said Hulse at the time. “We’ve not launched yet primarily because we’re not yet ready to go into the Canadian marketplace. Our plan now is to go in the second half, once we’ve nailed-down product and channel decisions.”
Hulse added that Samsung’s longer-term belief is that the notebook is the ultimate full functionality device, but it must be paired with smaller products such as netbooks and smartphones, and that the interoperability across those products needs to be there. That’s a value proposition and business case Samsung wanted to nail-down before launching in Canada.
Continue to monitor CDNNow for more as part of our coverage of Samsung Canada’s partner event this week in Blue Mountain, Ontario.