Printers look promising to Samsung

“Laser printers will be the next main products of the company,” said Park Jong-woo, the vice president of the digital printing division of Samsung Electronics Co. in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo. Mr. Park said that his company is investing 8 percent of its sales revenue in research and development and will establish a research center in Irvine, California next year. “We are going to focus on marketing in Europe next year when our factory in Slovakia is completed,” he said. He added that Samsung would also spend more on marketing in China, South America, Southeast Asia and the nations formerly part of the Soviet Union. “The world market for laser printers is 70 trillion won ($58.7 billion), the memory semiconductor market is 40 trillion won and the television market is 60 trillion won,” Mr. Park said in explaining why Samsung is making a push there. He said that another attraction of the laser printer market was that the expected life span of laser printers was a relatively short three to four years. The laser printer market has grown by 30 percent each year recently, and about 10 million laser printers have been sold worldwide this year. “Various technologies are needed in making a printer, such as mechanical engineering, electronics, chemicals and optics, so it is not easy for a new company to enter this market,” Mr. Park said. “Hewlett Packard and Canon have led the laser printer market so far, but we are going to expand our share there.” He said Samsung made laser printers smaller after creating multifunction chips, based on its semiconductor technology; that has led to lower prices for Samsung printers. Samsung Electronics had only 2 percent of the world printer market in 2000, but lifted that share to 9.6 percent in 2002 and expects to have a 16-percent share this year. by Kim Sang-woo