Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong of Samsung Electronics.

Photos of Gear VR and a 360 camera and others such as smartphones produced under the electronics giant’s strategy to focus on wireless sector products.(Photos:Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics Co. forecast stiff competition in the market due to uncertainty of the global economy down the road.

The company expects it may have to draw up a new global marketing strategy as walls separating industries crumble, and thus completely changing the parameters of industrial competition.

Samsung Electronics feels it has to develop a new system and capacity for the new pattern of competition, an open innovation that is effective and strengthens the company’s internal operations and creates synergy among the different sectors of the company.

The company has also been investing heavily in its R&D activities to fortify its future and find new growth engines.

The company has also been going all-out to work on an “open innovation” strategy to develop technologies and get diverse ideas for new businesses from outside the company.

Samsung Electronics has been working on IoT areas to nurture its growth, taking it in a very different direction from TV and home electronic appliances as the company plans to turn all of its products IoT-ready by 2020.

Samsung Electronics has been leading the mobile market by developing new technologies to deal with various challenges in the area, listening closely to what customers want. Samsung  will add to its current roster of content, services, smartphones, VR gear and 360 cameras.

“For the past several years, Samsung has pioneered and advanced the wearables category, bringing brave new concepts to the smart wearables market,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of Samsung’s IT & Mobile Business. “The Samsung Gear S2 reflects Samsung’s most progressive innovation.” 

The world’s biggest tech companies are in the early stages of a consumer IoT land-grab. Google has things like Next and OnHub; Apple is increasingly looking to rely less on the iPhone for revenue; and the announcement this week that Samsung is partnering with Gemalto for mobile payments will have been made at least partly with the success of Apple Pay in mind.

The Hub is the kind of premium WiFi router that is currently in fashion, that is also designed to facilitate connection to other SmartThings devices, that seem mainly to be domestic sensors for things like motion, water leaks, etc. 

Samsung has also redesigned the app to control all this IoT goodness, which is available on Android or iOS. It enables the user to interact with their IoT devices, receive alerts, take action, etc. You can even use a connected video camera to keep an eye on your place when prompted by a motion sensor.

“People are beginning to understand the real value and utility smart home technology can provide in their everyday lives. With this next major iteration of our products, we focused first and foremost on security and home monitoring to help answer the question, ‘is everything okay at home?’” said Alex Hawkinson, CEO and founder of SmartThings. 

“This marks our first product launch as part of the Samsung family, and together we’re continuing our commitment to deliver the easiest smart home solutions with a truly open ‘Internet of Things’ platform that maximizes collaboration and innovation across the industry.”