Samsung waiting for the "killer app"

SHANGHAI: Samsung has showcased 130 digital products in the mobile communication, mobile entertainment, office, components (NAND Flash memory) and home spaces at its Annual Global Roadshow, held in Shanghai.

Many of these products fall in the 'world's first, best, largest and smallest' categories. The 80 inch Plasma Display Panel (PDP) TV with 1920x1080 resolution and a viewing area of 1766mmx1128mm is the world's largest PDP, while the SCH-S250, with text-to-speech conversion capability and an TFT-LCD capable of 262,000 color resolution is the world's first 5 Megapixel camera phone and the SCX-4100 is the world's smallest personal printer.

Some striking mobile phones to watch out for is the S2300-- a camera-phone at 3.2 mega pixels, it comes with an optical zoom. Then there's the V-500 that comes with a swivel screen; you can turn the display around 180 degrees to see your pictures in landscape mode as well. This is something that has been seen in computer monitors but not so in mobile phones. Then there is a mobile phone with a 3GB HDD and stereo speakers. Globally, more than 50 percent of Samsung's phones are camera phones.

In India, on the other hand, only 7-8 percent of Samsung's phones are camera phones (the camera phone market in India is about 3 percent), while 60 percent of Samsung's phones in Thailand are camera phones.

Commenting on the camera phones, Samsung digital media business marketing team VP, David Steel said, "Companies that manufacture just phones or just cameras can't compete with us."

Amongst the new generation products, Samsung showcased some 3G phones as well. But, for the time being these remain in the 'next gen concept' stage. According to Samsung mobile communications division worldwide sales and marketing team senior VP, Chang Soo Choi, "The highway is ready, we need to wait for the right automobiles; the technology is available, but we need to look for the killer application."

Display was another big puller at the exhibition. The PS 80X4H is the world's largest and highest resolution plasma TV, with 1920x1080 full HD resolution, 2 tuner built-in with double screen PIP and full connectivity (VCR, DVD, PC, DVI, STB) while the LS57G15B is the world's first 57-inch LCD TV.



The cameras showcased, too, had the convergence element. The VPM105, for example, is a micro compact camcorder, camera, MP3 player, voice recorder and comes with 512 MB storage.


The VP-D6050 has an 10X optical zoom in its digi camcorder, while a 3X optical zoom in the digi still camera.

Keeping alive its tradition for well-designed products, the products on display certainly pleased the eye; some of them have also bagged prestigious awards for design. The 50-inch DLP TV (SP50L7HR), for example, has received the Silver Award for IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) by Business Week. Design is serious business for Samsung; it invested $ three billion in R&D last year, and has budgeted for more this year.

Most of these products are yet to be launched in India, while a few of them have already been launched in other markets such as Korea. The global pricing for most of them hasn't yet been announced.

The technology for some of these products has originated in India. Samsung's R&D team in Bangalore has developed the software for the World Phone (CDMA-GSM dual band, VGA camera with flash, video recording, dual color LCD, 64 polyphonic ringtones).

Incidentally, Samsung has over 25 R&D centers around the world, employing over 25,000 engineers. Focusing on localization, it taps local expertise; so it has centers for television in Russia, digital TV in the US, set-top boxes and video applications in Poland, cellphones in Dallas and voice recognition in Israel.

In fact, Samsung has registered patents in many countries; about 1,500 in the US and almost double that in Korea. According to Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jong Young Yun, "Samsung is rated as the fifth amongst companies with the largest number of patents."

Samsung has been the fastest growing brand in the last three years, with a current brand equity of $30 billion and a ranking of 21 (according to Interbrand). With a vision of leading the digital convergence revolution (voice, data and video), Samsung's repertoire includes products in the 'capture, display, sound, processing and networking' spaces.

If sales are an indication, then it's getting there. It had a turnover of $ 36.4 billion last year and in the first three quarters of this year, it has touched $ 38.1 billion.