A bitter LCD TV fight has erupted between two of South Korea’s biggest consumer electronics Companies LG and Samsung with both organisations set to roll out new dark red LCD TV’s in an effort to grab market share in Australia.
Samsung will reveal their new “Scarlet Red” “Crystal Design” TV tomorrow followed by LG later this month. Details on the new TV have been embargoed untill tommorrow. Both TV’s were shown recently at the CES Expo in Las Vegas with both Companies set to tip millions into their roll out in Australia.
The Samsung Series 6 scarlet red TV series from Samsung will hit stores in June while the LG offering is already in stores however marketing for their new model will not be rolled out till mid May 2008. It appears that both Companies are now using dark “scarlet red” as a key marketing tool.
“Samsung is the number 1 selling LCD TV Brand for 2007 (footnote GfK 2007 LCD sales), and further strengthening this dominance, the 650 offers a quantum leap in design which literally looks as good on, as it does off.” “The exciting thing is that this TV blends the ultimate in design with the latest in technology to deliver a truly unique package that will redefine the television market,” said Evan Manolis, Senior Product Manager, AV Marketing Samsung Australia.
The pre Olympics TV battle is set to be fought out in a declining consumer electronics market with consumers set to be the big winners as vendors slash price while delivering a new generation of flat panel offerings said a senior GFK analyst.
LG who has gagged journalists from talking about their new LCD TV offering until mid May has been struggling to grow market share in the mid 40″ LCD TV market this year is despite a major marketing campaign using TV, billboards and mass media as well as the sponsoring the recent test match cricket series during the peak buying period of December and January.
The Company not only lost out to both Samsung and Sony who both offered major incentives to consumers but have recently lost both their marketing director and AV products marketing manager following a major shake up at the Company. Overseas LG has reported a 2000% increase in profits.
Samsung Electronics has indicated that while global first-quarter flat panel TV shipments were down 28% sequentially at 23 million units, the company’s shipments were only down 15% from the fourth quarter of 2007, allowing it to gain market share. The company indicated that 32 million flat panel TVs were shipped worldwide in the fourth of 2007.
Samsung also noted that it expects to be the top LCD TV brand worldwide in the first quarter.
The company also cited data from DisplaySearch showing that global LCD TV demand will reach 105 million units this year, while PDP shipments will reach 13 million units. Samsung added that it aims to ship 18 million LCD TVs in 2008, while its total flat panel shipment will reach 21 million for the year.
