Samsung has announced that its expanding the ATIV brand to include its Windows based PC products. Originally used for its Windows Phone 8 hardware, Samsung states it will use the brand to represent the convergence of PC and mobile technologies. This will essentially unite all Samsung Windows products under a single umbrella. If you're now looking at Samsung ATIV hardware, it's running a version of Windows.
Sorry, the ATIV brand is here to stay
The change rolls out today with the official website now listing all products in the new ATIV family. Simon Stanford, VP of IM division at Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, had the following to comment on the announcement:
"We’re excited to announce the evolution of our Windows PC portfolio and are confident the ATIV brand will strengthen our position as the fastest growing PC brand. At Samsung, we are committed to driving innovation in the mobile business based on our multi-platform strategy. Windows is an important part of this commitment. We hope our ATIV brand will see the same kind of traction and awareness that we have seen with our Galaxy brand, with consumers associating ATIV with Windows in the same way they associate Galaxy with Android."
Now we're not ones to read to much into things. Really, we're not. But it's interesting to see Stanford state that the company hopes the ATIV brand will see the same kind of traction and awareness that they've witnessed with the popular Galaxy brand. Now that's something indeed. If Samsung really wants its ATIV brand to kick off, then this would mean the company is looking to take the Windows ecosystem seriously.
We could look at the rebrand as a restructuring off the family of Windows products to more effectively market both Windows 8 and Windows Phone. If Samsung looks to promote its tablets and PCs, its Windows Phones could well be along for the ride, which would be great for the platform. Could Samsung really be preparing to support Microsoft's mobile platform?
SideSync cometh but not for Windows Phone?
The second part of the announcement somewhat kills that beautiful image we've painted. As well as using ATIV for all its Windows products, Samsung also introduced SideSync technology to all Windows-based PCs. This enables consumers to easily switch from working on a PC to a Samsung smartphone. But hold on one minute before you get excited. We're talking Samsung Android smartphones. Not ATIV Windows Phones.
We've previously gone into some detail about Samsung potentially sabotaging Microsoft's platforms.
It would be a great solution for Samsung Windows Phones. The ability to use the PC keyboard to respond to a text received, view larger maps, photos and multimedia displayed on both devices. It's irritating for consumers as these are features which should be included in its ATIV experience with Windows Phone. It then makes it even harder to recommend Samsung Windows Phones, yet the company hopes to witness the same traction between its Windows Phone and Android hardware? Yeah, we're baffled too.
It's like Samsung are trying, but are heading down the wrong paths. If you're interested, the following products will be renamed today: Samsung Notebooks (Series 9, Series 7 Chronos, Series 5 Chronos, Series 7 Ultra, Series 5 Ultra, Series 5 510, Series 3, 370, Series 3 300); Samsung ATIV Smart PC and Smart PC Pro; and Samsung All in One PC (Series 5, 7 and 3).
