Ok am I the only one to state the obvious here? Since when did Samsung become a premium company???

I was raised in Australia, where Samsung have been very commonly available for decades. I don't know what their retail presence has been like in other countries, but as far back as I can remember taking an interest in electronic products (probably when I was 10 looking at getting my first stereo) Samsung have always had a large number of products in store. However, it wasn't an envious range of products. Up until about a year ago, Samsung was always the brand that people would buy if they couldn't afford Sony, or Panasonic, or HP, or Apple.... be it stereos, MP3 players, TV's, computers, phones, whatever.

Samsung have always been that also-ran brand sitting in the cheap section in Kmart. They offered the products that you bought if you wanted to buy something that was "like" an iPod or a Bose HiFi, or a Sony TV, but it was a given that it was an imitation. If you were going for a cheaper, inferior quality product, you'd accept this and be ok with it. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news and tell you that your mail-order-bride is ugly and a foot shorter than promised, but it's true. This is Samsung's history, cheap mediocre imitation is in their blood. So what's suddenly changed, if anything?!?

Samsung phones are gaining particular popularity in Australia, which is sort of a given considering their close proximity to Asia, and Australia's fondness for cheap imitation in almost anything (I can be harsh, I'm a fellow countryman!). It hasn't taken much for Samsung to go back to their roots in Australia and offer the new Samsung Galaxy S2 for $2! To a lesser extent they've quickly asserted themselves in the premium mobile and tablet market in the US. But it's looking likely their short gains in the US are diminishing quickly due to the iPhone gradually becoming available to more than one carrier. I think in this market is probably where most of the naivity about Samsung's history reigns supreme.

Taking another much used leaf from their competitor's books - A newly opened Samsung store in Sydney.

I get why people would be so quick to adapt to them. There's a percentage of people who would never buy an Apple product, be it for one of the many unreasonable or reasonable arguments out there, and they're looking for an alternative in the markets that Apple are dominating. That's fine, more power to that. HTC are a company that have actually come out of nowhere, are arguably the most innovative out of the alternatives, and have no overwhelming sub-premium product history. Likewise Sony is a consistent established player in all things electronic, they have the power and the history there but are slow to the game of mobile. It'll be understandable if people gravitated to these types of companies in the premium mobile market.

But Samsung? Really? It's like waking up one morning to discover that a cheap TV show host is a major frontrunner for presidency (Paula Abdul bandwagon anyone?)! We consumers can do better than this. Surely there are true premium companies out there that could provide true premium alternatives to Apple. Upcoming Nokia devices will be ones to watch out for as the update to WP7 is rolled out.

Please, enough of the madness though. To me, the way that Samsung have been hoisted up onto a premium pedestal, is the equivalent of an American walking into a foreign country to find that Burger King is classed as fine dining offered at 5 star resorts (I shudder at the thought). It's just weird.

So what exactly is their deal here? Have Samsung always been considered a premium brand in North America, or are they just taking advantage (kudos to them if they are) of a new and naive market?