A video Vision

With its two-way video communication technology and products in place,

Samsung is ready to sturt its stuff

The world's tallest tower, the fastest airplane, the longest road, are all

coveted titles today, with not just companies but also nations vying to beat

each other at them. Now, Samsung has entered the fray, but in the

digital-convergence space.

At its recently held Global Roadshow in Shanghai, it showcased over a hundred

digital products in the mobile communication, mobile enter-tainment, office,

components (NAND Flash memory) and home spaces, many of which with grandeur

titles-the SCH-S250, with text-to-speech con-version capability and an TFT-LCD

capable of 262,000 color resolution is the world's first 5 Megapixel camera

phone, while the 80 inch Plasma Display Panel (PDP) TV with 1920 x 1080

resolution and a viewing area of 1766mm x 1128mm is the world's largest PDP,

and the SCX-4100 is the world's smallest personal printer.

The company itself has been the world's fastest growing brands in the last

three years, with a current brand equity of $30 bn and a ranking of 21

(according to Interbrand).

The parent company's sales last year amounted to $36.4 bn, while in the

first three quarters of this year, it has touched $38.1 bn. Samsung India,

according to Mr Kwang-Soo Kim, president and CEO, Samsung South West Asia,

"is expecting a 25-30 percent increase in turnover over last year."

Last year's turnover for India was Rs 1,409 crore (according to Dataquest Top

20, 2004). And it is the mobile phone market that is expected to lead Samsung's

growth in India. According to Mr Kim, "In this segment India is 5-6 years

behind China, though by 2010 the India mobile phone market can reach the current

levels of China's." Incidentally, the cur-rent market size of China's

mobile phone market is $80 mn.

Samsung's plans for China, which currently contributes 18 percent of the

company's sales, are ambitious. Sales in China are expected to be $25 bn by

2010, more than double 2004's estimates of $12 bn. The plans are to take the

Chinese mar-ket's contribution up to 25-30 percent According to Sang-hyun Lee,

President and CEO, Samsung, China, "China has recently emerged as the

largest consumer market in the world and the future is still very bright".

Samsung has the technology and products in place to meet its ambitious plans.

Digital convergence (data, voice, video) and two-way video communications is

what it is laying its bets on. So, Sam-sung's repertoire includes products in

the capture (camera phones, digican-cam-corders), display (Plasma and LCD TVs),

store (SDRAM and Flash memory devices), proce-ssing (mobile CPUs) and

conne-ction (mobile phones) spaces.

Jong Young Yun, Samsung's vice-chairman and CEO, said, "Today, we

herald a new era of the video communication age. We will no longer be

constrai-ned by voice or data, but will live in a converged world where voice,

data and video work together to offer consu-mers the ultimate digital

experience."

Most of these products will reach India soon, though some of them have

already been launched in other markets such as Korea. The global pricing for

most of them hasn't yet been announced. Nevertheless, here's a look at some

of the striking products expected soon.

Amongst the mobile pho-nes, the S2300 is a 3.2 mega pixels camera phone that

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 both

landscape and portrait modes. This is some-thing that has been seen in computer

monitors but not hitherto 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 per-cent 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 genera-tion products are Samsung's 3G phones. But, for the

time being these remain in the "next gen concept" stage. According to

Samsung mobile communi-cations division worldwide sales and marketing team

senior VP, Chang Soo Choi, "The highway is ready, we need to wait for the

right automo-biles; the technology is avai-lable, but we need to look for the

killer application."

In display, 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.

Amongst cameras show-cased, the VPM105, for exam-ple, 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 exam-ple, has received the

Silver Award for IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) by Business Week.

Design is serious business for Samsung; it inves-ted $3 bn in R&D last year,

and has budgeted for more this year.

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).

Juhi Bhambal