By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Samsung Electronics-LG Electronics rivalry is one of the oldest and fiercest rivalries in South Korea's business sector. The latest battlefield between the two electronics giants will be Berlin, where they will compete to look better under the limelight in Europe's largest consumer electronics exhibition.
The Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA), scheduled for Sept. 4-9 at the German capital, rivals the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) of Las Vegas as the industry's biggest annual trade fair. Samsung and LG lead a pack of 40 Korean companies who have booked their booths for the Berlin conference.
Samsung, having leaped on the green bandwagon, is planning to display a slew of new household equipment, including washing machines, refrigerators and ovens, which represent the company's accelerating efforts for power-efficient products.
LG will try to steal the show by revealing its 15-inch television set using organic display technology, which will be the largest model of its kind when it appears on shelves in November.
Despite the worries that innovation will take a backseat in the difficult global economy, the organizers of IFA are hoping companies to come up with new, compelling technologies to add some noise to what has been a relatively dull 2009.
The products could prove to disappoint, but the guest list likely wouldn't. Choi Gee-sung, the president of Samsung Electronic's digital media division, already has his Berlin plane ticket ready. He just might run into Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive of Sony, in the hallways of the Messe Berlin conference center.
Also representing Samsung Electronics will be senior vice president Lee Jae-yong, the son of former group chairman Lee Kun-hee, who is currently groomed as the heir apparent to succeed his father at the management helm.
Despite their intense rivalry in the global market, Samsung and Sony are currently in talks to strengthen their collaboration in semiconductors, so any hint of exchanges between the senior executives of the companies will garner rapt attention.
LG Electronics is sending Lee Young-ha, president of its home appliances unit, and Simon Kang, who heads the company's home entertainment business, to the IFA event.
``Stringer is expected to make it to Berlin, although Sony has yet to confirm it,'' said an industry source.
``It will be interesting to watch the CEOs of Samsung, LG and Sony share the same location, as the three companies have been competing ferociously over the years in overlapping market areas, and see what they are most interested in.''
Samsung is brining more than 90 new products to its lavish booth at Messe Berlin, with an emphasis on low-power devices and equipment. The lineup includes the ``Eco Drum'' washing machine, which the company says needs just than half the power of conventional models to heat water.
Samsung will also reveal an electric oven that self-regulates the level of energy usage when depending on the amount of food cooked, and a double-door refrigerator with improved power efficiency.
For tech geeks, Samsung's HMX-U10 high-definition (HD) camcorder, which boasts a 2-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and Internet connectivity, and digital photo frames, using light-emitting diode (LED) technology, will garner attention.
Samsung in recent years have become the company to beat in flat-screen televisions, but LG has been hell-bent on stealing its rival's thunder. The two companies have been extended their arms race to the emerging LED backlight LCD television segment, and LG now vows to take a step forward with its television using active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) displays.
AMOLED displays, which use self-glowing materials, boast better picture quality than conventional LCD units with advantages in color saturation, contrast radio and response time. AMOLED televisions also consume less power and allow manufacturers to produce thinner televisions, LG officials said.
LG's 15-inch AMOLED television is larger than Sony's 11-inch OLED model that was revealed in 2007. Sony has not followed with new models yet.
OLED is regarded as a mainstay in future display technology and has been increasingly used in mobile phones and personal computers. However, high prices have thus far prevented OLED televisions to become a relevant market force.
Market researcher Display Search is predicting steady growth for global market for OLED televisions, expecting the segment to reach over 2.3 million units by 2013.
``We are committed to getting an early start out of the gate on OLED televisions. We will be able to reveal a 40-inch model in a not so distant future,'' said Havis Kwon, who heads LG's LCD television unit.
LG will release its AMOLED television in Korea in November, and offer it to foreign markets sometime during next year.