Samsung Electronics sets big goals to reach the top

Samsung Electronics Co. disclosed yesterday its goal to rank among the world’s top three electronics manufacturers by doubling its sales by 2010. “We will grow the number of top products in terms of market share from the current eight to 20 and achieve sales revenue of more than 115 trillion won ($110 billion) by 2010 to become one of the top three electronics makers in the world in terms of quality and quantity,” Yun Jong-yong, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics, told a meeting of analysts and investors at the Hyatt Hotel. Ranked sixth in the world at present, the technology giant, which has the No. 1 spot in such products as DRAM, SRAM and NAND flash memory chips and liquid crystal displays, posted record sales last year of 57 trillion won. According to Fortune magazine’s list of the top 500 global companies in the technology sector, IBM was the leader last year based on sales, followed by Germany’s Siemens, Japan’s Hitachi and Matsushita Electric Industrial, and Hewlett-Packard. To achieve its goal, Samsung will increase the proportion of research and development staff members to 32 percent of its workforce, or 52,000 people, by 2010, compared to 24 percent late last year, said Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo. Placing particular emphasis on patents, Mr. Lee said the company plans to boost the number of workers solely devoted to patents from the current 240 to as many as 450. The company forecast that global sales of NAND flash memory chips, which are used in portable digital music players and digital cameras, will rise 15 percent to $11.5 billion next year. Samsung’s semiconductor division president Hwang Chang-gyu said, “DRAM sales will be a little stagnant next year but we will be able to sell a massive number of NAND flash memory chips, just as we did to Apple Computer for its iPod nano MP3 player.” by Seo Ji-eun