Taking a Shot at LED TV Market

Samsung LED to aim at being among top-tier LED makers in the world by 2015

Samsung LED Co., a joint venture between Samsung Electronics Co. and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., both Samsung Group affiliates, took a giant step forward toward creating a second semiconductor legend on April 23.
The new j.v. company announced "Right Up Your Imagination"as the key slogan to meet its goal to be among the top-tier light emission diode (LED) makers by 2015.
President Kim Jae-wook said the LED industry has been growing rapidly, beyond market expectations, adding that the merger of Samsung Electro-Mechanics'LED know-how accumulated over 10 years and Samsung Electronics'experience, which put its chips at the top of the world chip industry, would make putting Samsung LED at the top of the world LED industry no longer a dream.
The CEO of the new company pointed out that speed in bringing together the development of technology, production and customer satisfaction without missing in terms of timing would be the key factor in the success of the joint venture, a brand new Samsung affiliate.
Kim said the new company should make efforts to cut out a large share of the global LED market as early as possible in order to be a first-class global LED maker in a rapidly-growing world LED industry. He said he will steer the company so that its corporate culture is deeply rooted toward providing top service to its customers, free thinking and discussion to move in the same direction with passion and steadiness.
The company expects the world LED market will grow as large as the D-RAM semiconductor market in five to six years. According to a market survey by Strategy Unlimited, the global LED market ― which hit $5.2 billion last year ― will grow to $12.7 billion by 2013, at a pace of 20 percent growth annually, and to $24 billion in 2015, and some parts used for TV manufacturing will have a hard time keeping up with demand. Demand for LED BLUs (back light unit) used in LCDs has been rising 60 percent annually, leading the expansion of the LED market.
Orders for LEDs from major TV makers around the world and at home have been piling up already for producers including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony, with Samsung Electronics establishing LED TV as its next-generation growth engine. In order to be able to take care of the increasing volume of orders, the company plans to take over part of Samsung Electronics'chip production facilities and turn them into LED production lines.
With the environment and energy sectors following the IT industry as new growth engines in the future, the LED industry will be able to continue to produce profits, recreating the myths of semiconductor and cell phones and be a top global LED maker in the world by 2015, the new CEO said.
Demand for LED BLUs has been explosive as the commercial launch of LED TV has been a huge success with demand for the new style of TV growing rapidly worldwide, requiring the expansion of production facilities as soon as possible.
President Kim, an expert on production technologies, said he plans to expand the company's plants in Kihung and Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where its home office is also located, and Tianjin, China, as a move toward the company's goal to be a top tier maker of LED by 2015.
In the meantime, Samsung Electronics expanded its line of LCD TVs to eight models by adding 240 Hz LED TV recently to speed up its marketing of those models. The company said it launched the sale of PAVV LED TV 8000 series 116 cm (46 inches) and 139 cm (55 inches) at 26 sales outlets in the Seoul area including department stores. The company launched the sale of those TV models on April 20 at a number of retail stores across the United States including Best Buy and from the middle of May in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Officials of the company said Samsung Electronics became the first one to have a full line of LED TVs with different functions, sizes and prices for its eight models including the two just added recently.
They said the 8000 series is able to display 240 sheets of images per second with the 240Hz technology producing very clear pictures. The 240 Hz technology can motion compensate 180 sheets of images to the 60 emitted by the broadcasting station. Viewers can watch the LED TV 8000 just like they are watching sports with the naked eye at a live event, the officials said. nw

Samsung LED Co. President Kim Jae-wook