In most of the markets where Samsung operates, the political environment is conducive to its operations and though there are minor irritants in some of the foreign markets. Samsung mostly does not have any political threats. However, in recent months, it has faced significant political headwinds in its home country of South Korea because of the country’s tensions with North Korea. Samsung as a multinational corporation faces some threats in any country that there might be political changes, but the affects can have said to be little in when assessing the bigger picture. Is the case of U.S. and UK, Trump and Brexit have made it clear that the political environment changes in the more “stable” countries as well. 

Economical 

Samsung is trying to expans to developing markets and is looking for new ventures there. Because Samsung is trying to go global, crisis has a big impact on how the company is doing. The key point to note here is that the macroeconomic environment in which Samsung operates globally is beset with uncertainty and volatility leading to the company having had to reorient its strategies accordingly. Disposal income of people has also decreased, which caused the drop on revenue for Samsung. 

Social – Cultural 

Samsung is a multinational company that comes from South Korea, meaning that they have to spend a lot of time to adapt to other cultures by using “Glocal strategy” (Global+local) in many emerging markets. The key point to note here is that Samsung operates in a market niche that is strongly influenced by the lifestyle preferences of consumers and given the fact that socio cultural factors are different in each country 

Technological 

Samsung can be considered as being among the world’s leading innovative companies. On the other hand, so are the competitors. Apple’s product design for example has brought legal and regulatory scrutiny and troubles for the company. In the case of Samsung 9, it is yet another round of trying to beat the competitors by offering the latest technological updates and trying to outcompete the rivals with them. It is at the end of the day an impossible mission to completely outcompete the others, as we assume that the process will keep on going and a Samsung 10 released in a similar fashion as its predecessors. 

Legal 

Samsung`s the biggest competitor is the well know company Apple (tight the competition in the market, means that customers needs are similar), so they face some legal penalties for imitation of the competitors products, for example Ipad, Iphone. 

Environmental 

Samsung has to take care how environmentally friendly the phone is and whether it is possible to recycle the ole phones. Moreover Samsung company cannot outsource cheap human resources from developing countries otherwise consumers will find it unethical. It should compete with other producers in order to make eco-friendly production and win the race for ethical behaviour. 

§  Samsung is the world’s most successful electronics manufacturer. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of television sets, liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, mobile phones and smartphones.

§  Samsung has impressive research and design capabilities. It was able to create and roll out Samsung Pay, a payment app with similar capabilities to Apple Pay, in less than a year. Samsung has been able to replicate many of the capabilities of both Apple Inc.’s phones and Google Inc.’s Android operating system for mobile devices.

§  Samsung has strong manufacturing and marketing capabilities.

§  Samsung has long-standing relationships with retailers in the United States and Europe that provide a steady sales channel for its products.

§  Samsung is heavily dependent upon consumer electronics sales in markets with limited potential for growth, such as the United States and Europe, for much of its revenue.

§  Samsung’s devices use the Google Android open source operating system. Many consumers seem to view Android as an inferior product to Apple’s iOS. The public has not been as accepting of Android as the tech community has.

§  Some consumers view Apple products as more advanced and dependable than Samsung products.

§  Samsung’s marketing efforts are not as sophisticated as Apple’s.

§  Growing market for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, especially in developing regions such as Africa and India 

§  Increased demand for tablet and smartphone-based solutions such as Samsung Pay

§  New technologies such as wearable tech

§  Growing middle class in developing world will increase market for consumer electronics.

§  Growing online market from sales channels such as Amazon.com

§  Apple has emerged as the dominant smartphone and tablet brand in some markets, such as the United States. Samsung has not been able to overcome Apple’s reputation for reliability.

§  Apple’s reputation for quality, reliability and sophistication seems to be growing.

§  The Google Android operating system, which Galaxy devices depend upon, is not as popular with average people as iOS is.

§  Declining or stagnating middle-class incomes in North America and the United States could reduce consumer buying power in those key markets for Samsung.

§  Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi could emerge as serious rivals to Samsung. These companies’ share of the critical mobile device market is growing while Samsung’s is falling.

§  Apple could enter more consumer products areas such as home appliances and cameras and directly compete with Samsung in those markets.

 Issues: Motivation/inspiration for personal achivement of employees, keep concentration on the task, don't be frustrated by problems, try to find soultions, document the process (for later evaluation), state and evaluate your position on the market, keep goals/schedules in mind. 

Must be addressed- 

·       Infinity display, It has a clean; bright, fluid-looking display; and a mirror-like glass back, 

·       It has high quality camera Front: 8 MP AF, Rear: 12 MP OIS AF 

·       Innovative screen to phony body ratio. The screen size increased however the body size stayed the same giving the comfortable mix. 

·       Innovative charging method – wireless charging, no need to plug the phone 

Should be addressed 

·       Strong processor Octa-core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.7GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10nm processor 

·       Increased memory capacity Memory: Internal Memory 64 GB, RAM 4GB also the ability to increase the memory with memory card. 

Valuable -- meaning that they must be a source of greater value, in terms of relative costs and benefits, than similar resources in competing firms.

Samsung S9 has been carefully and delicately shaped to preserve the bare essence of design. With attention to detail and precise technology, the S9 showcases a perfectly singular form. The S9 is designed for today’s mobile workforce that’s doing business everywhere and demanding access and continuity to everything, every second of the day and night.

Rare -- rareness implies that the resource must be rare in the sense that it is scarce relative to demand for its use or what it produces. 

In the case of Samsung S9, which looks like previous Samsung S8. But it has new specific features:

·  Super-slow-motion video – this feature is already available in other smartphones, like Sony Xperia. But Samsung’s implementation is incredible. The S9 can slow down a video clip to 960 frames per second at 720p resolution for 0,2 seconds to create 6 second clip. Also, a manual mode lets you control the action if you prefer to do that instead.

·  Variable aperture – taking photos in a low - light conditions; bar or night clubs is a struggle with most camera phones. The S9 camera will make photos sharper, clearer and worth sharing, thanks to a new dual aperture.

·  Dual – lens camera on S9+ - dual – lens camera systems that sport a main wide – angle shooter and a secondary telephoto lens are all the rage these days. Samsung baked second lens into the S9+, which allows you to achieve portrait effects using Live Focus and gives you 2x optical zoom for clearer shots from far away.

·  Intelligent scan – S8 offers 3 modes of authenticating your identity: iris scanning, facial recognition and fingerprint sensor. The S9 adds 4th: Intelligent scan. The new method combines facial and iris scanning, which means you won’t have to pick between the two one method fails: the S9 will simply default to the other.

·  AR emoji – Samsung’s version of animated emoji is bound to be polarizing. The S9 camera turns your face into an avatar that resembles sort of You and then uses your facial expressions to animate the character. It’s a compelling feature, in theory, and one that makes animated emoji seem more lifelike.

·  Bixby vision – Samsung wants to make its digital assistant, Bixby, more useful, so the S9 gives it more powers. When you open the camera app and toggle over to Bixby, you can use the camera preview to translate text into a different language, view calorie counts in various foods and even apply makeup to your face. The makeup application actually mapped my facial features and applied products to the right spots, which was impressive.

·  Stereo speakers – the galaxy S9 sports stereo speakers tuned by AKG with one speaker located on the bottom of the device. Samsung says the new speakers are 1.4 times louder than the ones in the S8. S9 also uses Dolby Atmos technology and that makes a world of difference. It is insanely cool.

·  New colours – Samsung S9 has launched completely new colours. Midnight Black, Coral Blue and Lilac Purple. The glossy shades coat the sides and back of the phone, and purple shade is stunner in person.

Inimitable -- it is difficult to imitate

Samsung has gained a strong reputation with their Galaxy line of smartphones. They are famous for their great OLED displays that they are selling to their competitors, for example Apple, to. The cameras in Samsung Galaxy flagship phones are also known to be excellent and at the moment it's arguable that they might have the best cameras in business. Samsung has had an approximate 20% market share in the global smartphone market for the past 7 years and even with increased competition in the android market they have been able to secure their position. The Samsung "S" line, the flagship line of their phones, has historically been introducing the latest innovation in both software and hardware that most of their competitors have not been able to match. However, in the hectic predatory market of the modern day, a phone that is over one year old is not the top of the line anymore.

Since the release, Apple has launched their "iPhone X", the ten-year anniversary edition of their loved handheld device, similarly priced but more powerful in most tasks. The camera in iPhone X has been critically acclaimed. In addition, Google has released a direct competitor to the phone in the top-end Android market called "Pixel 2 plus". The phone is similar in size to the S8+ but features a clean installation of vanilla Android. The phone can be imitated, yes, not precisely but on it's features. 

Non-substitutable -- other different types of resources cannot be functional substitutes

The S8+, along with any other flagship smartphone, can't dream of being nonsubstitutable. Modern day flagships will be the top of the line for 6 to 8 months - if they are lucky. The Pixel 2 plus is already a functioning subsitute. Since the Pixel is a Google product, it will receive the latest Android updates far before the S8+ and due to the nature of the business, when the following product S9+ is released Samsung will shift it's priorities to the follow-up.

Samsung however has a lasting role in the smartphone business. The fact that they are selling screens and cameras to other manufacturers, such as OnePlus, Apple and Huawei means that even if their share of the smartphone market would at some point decrease they will still gain money from every major smartphone sale.

If taken a slightly wider view in to the business and not just discussing the S8+ but also the following flagship phones from Samsung we can with confidence say that they have a secured position as non-substitutable also with their phones in addition to the component. Samsung as one of the tech industry behemoths has an production engine the size that most product manufacturers can only dream of. They can conduct market research and focus their development efforts to gain major advantage in for example one of the following specs: camera, processor or screen, to take a leap ahead of their competitors for that generation of smartphones at least. Samsung’s position in the smartphone market is to be an innovator, other manufacturers observe what Samsung is doing and are interested in using Samsung as their supplier.