Samsung H2 TV sales soar
“It feels like we’re being chased by someone,” Shin Sang-heung, the senior vice president of Samsung Electronics’ visual display division, told reporters yesterday at the Suwon, Gyeonggi headquarters of Samsung Electronics. Samsung beat out its rivals Sony, LG Electronics and Philips.
Shin’s comment came as Samsung for the first time claimed more than a 20 percent global market share. The Korean company has been claiming the largest market share in TV sales over the past eight quarters. Samsung also narrowed the gap between its formidable rival Sony from 6.4 percent to 7.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Samsung also holds the largest market share in terms of total revenue earned from LCD TV sales over the past 10 quarters. By earning $4.6 billion from selling LCD TVs, Samsung ranks No. 1 both in the number of TVs sold and total earnings from TV sales.
Amid falling LCD TV prices across the world due to oversupply, how has Samsung been able to hold two titles in the world’s LCD market?
Samsung’s patented natural color gradation technology, nicknamed Crystal Rose, has played a crucial role. Bezels of Samsung’s Crystal Rose TVs are made by fusing both transparent and rosy colors through dual-injecting mold technology, while other companies use paint. With the dual-injecting mold technology, the bezel edges are transparent while their insides are rose-colored.
“It was a risky decision to invest in dual-injection molding technology because it costs so much,” said Kim Sang-hak, vice president of Samsung’s mechanical development group, while he escorted reporters to Suwon-based Sehwa Co. Ltd. yesterday.
“The technology to make small plastic products has been around over the past decades, but it is the first time it’s been adapted to make huge TVs,” said Kim.
Sehwa is Samsung’s partner company, and all of the plant’s facilities were purchased by Samsung. One machine that enables dual-injection molding costs 2 billion won ($1.89 million). Sehwa has five of them, and others are installed throughout Samsung’s overseas plants. One machine is fully operated for 24 hours and produces 800 bezels a day. Samsung said it developed this injection molding method to make imitating original color gradation hard for its rivals. In order to develop the technology, Samsung flew to Germany and Austria to benchmark their technologies.
“More harsh competition is expected next year among TV makers, and some try to lower costs in diverse ways. But we’re not interested in ordering TVs from small and midsize companies and then selling them under the Samsung brand because we have high-quality facilities to produce TVs in cost-effective ways,” said Shin.
Meanwhile, Samsung unveiled a total of eight new flat-panel TVs yesterday aiming for the second half of this year. Among them, news about eighth-generation LCD TVs, which are around 50 inches, was disclosed.
By Sung So-young Staff Reporter [so@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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