Samsung to Release Bendable TV Set This Year as Sales Stagnate

January 8, 2014 Leave a comment

Samsung to Release Bendable TV Set This Year as Sales Stagnate

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will release its first television set with a bendable screen this year as the world’s largest maker seeks to revive stalling global demand.Viewers can change the display from a flat screen to a curved one by touching a button, Samsung said in statement today at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it’s displaying the concept model. The company also announced content partnerships with companies including Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX)

Samsung is trying to combat shrinking TV sales and stagnating prices by focusing on ultra-high definition screens using liquid-crystal displays. The company struggled to profitably make sets using a display technology that’s slimmer and brighter, so it’s boosting production of less-expensive LCD screens, with 10 models set to debut this year.

“We plan to release the bendable TV in the market in the second half of this year,” Kim Hyun Suk, executive vice president of Samsung’s TV business, said in an interview. He didn’t elaborate on the size of the bendable screen or the set’s price.

The company also plans to release a TV using the Tizen operating system this year, Kim said without elaborating. Samsung is partnering with Intel Corp. and other technology companies to develop Tizen, which is meant for smartphones, tablets and car systems.

Comcast, Fox

Six of Samsung’s new TVs will feature a curved design, with sizes ranging from 55 inches to 110 inches, and will be released in the first half of this year.

Ultra-high definition screens, which offer four times the picture resolution of conventional displays, have struggled to gain traction in the market because of a lack of content for the format and higher prices.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company expects its new content deals to spur demand for UHD entertainment through streaming services and pay-TV operators. Samsung’s partners will include DirecTV and Comcast Corp., as well as units of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) and Viacom Inc. (VIAB)

While the company is focusing on LCDs to remain competitive with Japanese and Chinese producers, Samsung remains committed to organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, displays in the long-term, Kim said.

“The problem is OLED TVs aren’t convincing enough for consumers to open their wallets,” said Jusy Hong, an analyst at Englewood, Colorado-based researcher IHS Inc. “Until the real flexible displays come into play, the new technology will battle with LCDs at least for the next four-to-five years’ time.”

Olympic Benefit

Global TV demand fell to 226.7 million units last year from 238.2 million the year before, according to IHS. This year, demand will rebound to 229 million units, it said.

Samsung, the world’s top TV producer for the past eight years, sees the U.S. and Europe as key markets for new sales this year as economies in both regions recover and demand benefits from events such as the Winter Olympics in the Russian resort of Sochi next month and the World Cup soccer tournament.

“The U.S. economy isn’t expected to be bad, while Europe will also turn for better this year,” Kim said. “The overall TV industry will grow with new technology releases and a lot of upcoming sports events this year.”

Samsung maintained its top position with a 25.5 percent share in the global flat-screen TV market in the third quarter last year, while LG Electronics Inc. (066570) had 14.7 percent and Sony Corp. (6758) 7.5 percent, according to market tracker DisplaySearch.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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