South Korean electronics giant Samsung, whose laptops have been rebadged and sold by Dell, Tuesday announced its own beachhead in the U.S. market while Apple prepares to unveil new models with a price points expected to dip to $900.

Samsung’s new lineup ranges in price from a $499 netbook with a 160-gigabyte hard drive to 13.3-inch and 14.1-inch ultra-light notebooks with solid-state memory starting at $1,599 that will compete with the Apple Air.
 
Samsung, whose wireless handsets and televisions are widely marketed in the United States, has faced off against Apple’s popular iPod, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

“In the mp3 player space, it’s one of the more powerful competitors to Apple,” he said. “They’re much more aggressive on price.”

Price will be the key element in Apple’s product rollout today, Mr. Enderle said. Apple is expected to launch a line of new Macbooks whose price points may not match comparable PC rivals, but would for the first time drop below $1,000.

“During the current economic conditions, it could be a lifesaver for the firm,” Mr. Enderle said. “Apple has sold products for the last few years for a moderate premium. The question is: Will the market accept $900 as a moderate premium” over PC laptops whose price has fallen to $500.

“The introduction of Samsung’s premium notebook offerings to the U.S. market solidifies Samsung as a global technology leader, providing advanced mobile computing designs of the highest reliability and quality,” Christopher Franey, vice president of marketing and commercial sales at Samsung Electronics Information Technology Division, said in a statement. (See press release: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20081014005581&newsLang=en)

Samsung’s foray into the U.S. market also could rattle the Nos. 1 and 2 domestic PC vendors, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Like Samsung, both make computers with the Windows operating system, while Apple uses a proprietary system for its hardware.