Samsunghttps://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/technology/08electronic.html?pagewanted=1
Flat-Panel Sets to Enhance the Visibility of Samsung
By ERIC A. TAUB
Published: January 8, 2004
AS VEGAS, Jan. 7 - Thin, rich and well-connected - vital qualities for young social strivers - may well also be the defining factors in many of the flashy new high-tech consumer products that will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show opening here on Thursday.
And, like Paris Hilton preening for a crowd of paparazzi, Samsung Electronics of South Korea has been perhaps the company striving the hardest lately to make a name for itself from such products. The company plans to push itself further forward on Thursday when it introduces the world's largest flat-panel televisions intended for the home: an expensive 80-inch plasma model and a boundary-breaking 57-inch liquid crystal display set.
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Because of manufacturing challenges, previous plasma displays have not exceeded 63 inches and L.C.D. sets sold to date have measured no more than 46 inches from corner to corner.
A decade ago, Samsung was virtually unknown outside of Korea. While it has been a world leader in manufacturing semiconductor chips for many years, until recently its name evoked little more than head-scratching from most consumers. Even through the late 1990's, it was perhaps best recognized by Americans for its sleek flip-model cellphones.
Today, however, Samsung has built itself into a premium brand largely by becoming a major player in the making and marketing of the most advanced television receivers. These include flat-panel sets as well as the increasingly popular rear-projection sets that rely on digital light processing chips from Texas Instruments. Samsung now sells more D.L.P.-based sets, which it introduced only a year ago, than any other manufacturer.
Samsung is rolling out its giant televisions at what has become the nation's Big Gulp of trade shows. With 1.4 million square feet of exhibit space and 110,000 people preregistered to attend - up 15 percent from 2003 - this year's exhibition will be "the largest annual trade show in U.S. history," according to Gary Shapiro, the president of the Consumer Electronics Association, the show's sponsor.
When Samsung's new sets first reach retailers in the second half of this year, the two new models will be beyond the financial reach of all but a handful of video enthusiasts.
The price for the plasma TV is expected to be about $70,000, far above the $20,000 Samsung charges for its former champion, its 63-inch model. For the 57-inch L.C.D. set, expect to pay close to $30,000.
But the history of many high-profile electronics products indicates that prices will drop rapidly; indeed, Samsung executives say they plan to cut retail costs by 25 percent within six months after introduction. More important, the prices of less gargantuan big-screen TV's are quickly falling within a range acceptable to millions of middle-class buyers.
"We don't expect to make big money from these two TV's," said G. S. Choi, president of Samsung Electronics' Digital Media Network business, who predicted the company would eventually sell at most 1,000 a month of the new supersize plasma model. "These are marketing tools to help us enhance our brand image."
Today, Samsung is the third-largest supplier of L.C.D. panels, behind Sharp of Japan and the industry leader, LG Philips, a joint venture of LG Electronics of South Korea and Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. LG Electronics announced plans on Wednesday to produce a 76-inch plasma TV.
"Samsung is an awesome competitor," said Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media, a research firm in Norwalk, Conn. "They invested heavily in advanced technologies before the crowd mentality motivated others to do the same. They single-handedly established the market for D.L.P.-based rear-projection TV's."
Rather than play into the old view of South Korean manufacturers as capable of little more than boring products that followed Japan's lead at a lower price, Samsung decided early to shun less-expensive traditional cathode ray picture tubes. Tube sets still far outsell the new display technologies but they have become basic commodities, with much of the manufacturing moving to China, leaving little room for profit elsewhere.
"We were late with C.R.T. development, and we weren't having a great success with them,'' Mr. Choi said. "We decided to emphasize flat-panel and D.L.P. TV's as a result. We want to be the leader in the flat-panel segment."
While Samsung may face some critical issues related to its plans to help shore up two important finance affiliates, the company's television efforts appear to be paying off in a big way. In three years, Samsung has quadrupled its market share in the United States in the 30-inch and larger segment, climbing to 5.6 percent. At the same time, it now captures 8.9 percent of the dollars in the segment, up sevenfold, according to the NPD Group research firm.
t sells millions of TV's worldwide, but Samsung sold only 150,000 sets in the United States last year. By concentrating on the high end, though, Samsung did enough to capture the largest market share for all TV's priced above $3,000. Samsung expects to increase sales in 2004 to 500,000 sets.
Still, further success will not come easy. Samsung will continue to meet stiff competition, even in markets where it is now the leader.
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Using the same D.L.P.-based technology, Thomson of France, the owner of the RCA brand, announced Wednesday that it will manufacture the world's thinnest rear-projection TV's. Each of the two Profiles models will be just 6.85 inches deep. Standard rear-projection TV's based on cathode ray tube technology typically extend up to 27 inches behind the screen; large D.L.P.-based models are about 16 inches deep.
"Our big push this year is in D.L.P.-based rear-projection televisions," said Dave Arland, a spokesman for Thomson, which announced in November that it would merge its TV manufacturing business with TCL Electronics of China. "We won't come out with a $30,000 TV, but we will be a soup-to-nuts television manufacturer."
At this year's consumer electronics show, it is not just how you look, but whom you can relate to that will ultimately define success. TV's are moving away from being stand-alone devices to become an integral part of a larger home network, allowing users to download, store, and then transfer audio, video and photographs throughout the house.
RCA will demonstrate its concept of a future wireless system that can send HDTV programming from a set-top box to a television in another room.
Philips has introduced its Streamium FlatTV, a 23-inch L.C.D. model equipped with a wireless Internet connection that can play video and audio files downloaded from a Web site or stored on the consumer's hard drive.
Others, including not just Samsung and Sony but major computer makers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, are working on their own networking concepts.
And Ucentric Systems, based in Maynard, Mass., has developed software that will allow consumers to shift programming from one TV to another, starting a show in the living room, then pausing and picking up where it left off in the bedroom.
"We're on the cusp of home connectivity," said Stephen Baker, the director for industry analysis at NPD Techworld. "A network in the home is inevitable.'' But he warned that the industry still needs to overcome various technical hurdles before content providers are prepared to open the programming taps.
"If customers can't use it to share audio and video files, there will be a consumer backlash," he said.