Samsung won the top spot due to improvements in LCD sales and growth in demand for memory chips. Its move into first place among global tech firms is all the more impressive because some of HP's growth came from its acquisition of EDS, the information-technology consulting firm.
Of course, first place in an industry can have its disadvantages. Three years ago, GM was the No.1 car company in the world; last year it filed for Chapter 11. Toyota (TM) took the top spot among auto firms and is now under tremendous pressure to fix gas pedal problems on nearly 8 million cars worldwide.
But for Samsung, so far so good, though it has had quality problems of its own, such as last year's recall of a small number of cellphones that might fail to complete "911" calls.
Making it to the top of an industry is good for bragging rights and boosts morale -- until there's a problem. And those almost always hit without warning.
Needless to say I will never purchase another HP product again period.
HP's product line differs from Samsung's, but, I do know this - if consumers are going to pay almost 40% of the price of their printer for the cartridges, some company in Japan, China, S. Korea or India will manufacture knock-offs that will sell for what consumers consider is a fair price. To be noted also is the fact that cartridge prices have increased by up to 60% over the past two years. If this is the competitive pricing philosophy of HP, I doubt very much they will even command second place in the next 5 years. After all, who wants to end up paying several times more for printer cartridges than the printer?