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    Samsung not afraid of premium laptop pricing

    Samsung not afraid of premium laptop pricing

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    Samsung plans to continue focusing on laptop price points above $1000, say company executives. Samsung believes that most customers are willing to pay a $200 to $300 premium for the right computer.

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    Gallery Photo: Samsung Series 9 hands-on pictures
    Gallery Photo: Samsung Series 9 hands-on pictures

    Executives at Samsung believe its thin and light laptops have what it takes to command a premium price. Speaking to Laptop Mag, the company’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Won Park, admits that while "it’s kind of an audacious move to go beyond the ultrabook in terms of price," he thinks the company’s vertically integrated production process and the tight control it has over design and production set it apart from competitors. The company also believes that most customers are willing to pay a $200 to $300 premium for the right machine.

    Despite insistence from Intel that ultrabook prices are on the way down, it’s been hard for companies like Acer to make money at entry level price points. Samsung has definitely been putting out some refined-looking hardware, but so have competitors like Acer and HP with the soon-to-be-released Aspire S5 and Spectre XT, so while it's not exactly a unique strategy, it is where Samsung feels its best odds lie. The company also noted its plans to move away from glossy displays, another possible differentiator. Not all differentiators are created equal, however. Samsung's executives were critical of the design behind Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga, pointing to how the inside-out design forces users to touch the exposed keycaps when using it as a tablet. The company believes that with convertibles, "the ability to convert has to be elegant," not so subtly drawing the comparison to its own Sliding PC design.