'Semiconductor shock only temporary, things will get better'
Kim Hyun-suk, president of Samsung Electronics' consumer electronics division, speaks during a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Samsung to sell commercial robots in 2019
By Baek Byung-yeul
LAS VEGAS -- The ongoing trade dispute between United States and China was the main reason why Samsung Electronics suffered an earnings shock in the fourth quarter of 2018, the company CEO said Tuesday.
“The businesses we are doing is not irrelevant to the global economy. As you know, there have been a lot of economic issues in the world and Samsung had no choice but to be affected by them,” said Kim Hyun-suk, CEO and head of the firm's consumer electronics division, said at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Samsung said it recorded an operating profit of 10.8 trillion won ($9.6 billion) in the fourth quarter, 28.7 percent decrease year-on-year, and its sales came to 59 trillion won ($52 billion), 10.58 percent decrease year-on-year.
This is the first time that the firm posted its quarterly operating profit below 14 trillion won since it posted 9.9 trillion won in the first quarter of 2017.
Kim added the trade dispute also accelerated the slowdown of China's economy and that also made the firm suffer earnings shock.
Samsung enjoyed the super cycle of semiconductors in 2017 and 2018 thanks to explosive global chip demand, but the growing uncertainty from the trade war hit the firm's chip business.
However, he emphasized Samsung will soon begin to recover as the firm has the power to overcome such hardships.
“Why I have always been proud of Samsung and why Samsung is distinguished from other firms is that Samsung has the potential to overcome these hardships.
“Samsung is presumed to see a profit uptick from the second half of 2019 and I hope so, too,” Kim said.
At the ongoing CES tech fair, Samsung made headlines, unveiling its robot platform Samsung Bot.
Kim said Samsung would be able to roll out several robots in the market within 2019.
“We are planning to sell some of our robots within this year,” Kim said. “As the society is aging faster, seniors can manage their health routine with robots. I think robots will be widely used near future and the business will be centered on AI as well.”
As the leader of Samsung's consumer electronics business, Kim also stressed the firm will expand its artificial intelligence (AI) technology-focused ecosystem with global IT firms to keep a strong grip on the industry.
Kim said Samsung's AI ecosystem centered on its AI platform Bixby is getting stronger as a growing number of global firms want to join the Bixby ecosystem.
“Bixby has been improved so much compared to when we launched it two years ago. As many firms have asked us to join the ecosystem, I am so sure the Bixby ecosystem will be developed rapidly,” Kim said in a meeting with reporters. During the CES, Samsung announced Google Assistant and Amazon Alex AIs will be available on its smart TVs.
“I have emphasized that Samsung's AI platform Bixby would become a powerful AI platform, not just remain a voice assistant. As seen in Samsung's collaboration with Amazon and Google in AI technology, a growing number of firms want to join our platform.”
There have been concerns that it will be difficult for Samsung to expand its Bixby ecosystem if the firm keeps expanding cooperation with renowned IT firms such as Amazon or Google, which have shown cutting-edge AI technologies.
However, Kim said Samsung is cooperating with those IT firms not because its Bixby performs worse than Amazon or Google's AI platform.
“Having a partnership with them at an equal position, Samsung is expanding its ecosystem and they are also widening their own ecosystem. After all, we will have bigger ecosystem,” Kim said.
Kim also said AI cannot be stressed enough. “The core is AI. While we have been talking about connectivity of devices or fifth-generation (5G) network as essential elements for business growth, they all begin from AI,” Kim said.
Kim explained Samsung even couldn't roll out an 8K TV without using AI technology.
“Even Samsung's 8K TV couldn't be in the market without AI technology. To make a TV with 8K resolution, we need two core technologies. The first one is display panel technology to deliver 8K contents.
“And another one is a processing engine to upscale video content to 8K resolution. We took three years to develop the technology and it can't be possible without using AI,” Kim said.
Samsung also could come with its robot platform Samsung Bot as it has secured enough AI technology to do robot business, he said.
“To do robot business, the most important one is creating an AI technology-based robot platform. As we can make use of AI technology to some degree, we launched the robot platform,” Kim said.
Stating that there have been so many changes in our lifestyle, Kim said Samsung also needs to make products that suit the changes.
“The younger generations have become leading consumers and a more urbanized living environment has prompted us to make new products. We will have opportunities to announce new products that match the changes. At the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) which will be held here in Las Vegas in February, we will launch new lifestyle products,” Kim said.