LG Has White Goods Going Green
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Tech shows are usually driven by waves of new products and leap-frogging technologies. An exception could be this year's Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) event in Berlin, where the talk is more about cheaper, less power-guzzling devices than compelling new technologies, as companies adjust to credit-crunched consumers and their tightened purse strings.
LG Electronics is one of the global electronics giants that are touting energy-saving solutions, sticking the word ``green'' to seemingly every product it is introducing at the German trade fair.
Apparently, the speeding green bandwagon is more about saving the greens in consumer wallets than whatever it has to do with the environment.
LG intends to use the IFA, scheduled for Sept. 4-9 in the German capital, as a stage to promote its new line of power-efficient white goods and household appliances. The company has been accelerating its marketing efforts in Europe, and hopes to control 10 percent of the market for ``premium'' washing machines sold above 600 euros and a similar proportion of the refrigerators market.
Currently, sales in European countries account for just 10 percent of LG's home appliances business, and the company sees a larger room for growth.
The company's products to be featured in Berlin include a 24-inch frontload washer with a capacity of 11 kilograms, which is claimed as the largest among models of similar frame. The product is designed to generate less noise and less vibration, while using less water and energy, a result of LG's ``inverter direct drive'' motor technology that better regulates revolutions, company officials said.
Although LG has yet to establish a top-tier reputation in washing machines, its European sales have been picking up, evidenced by its top 3 status in countries like Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic and Finland.
``The washer effectively cuts washing time and also reduces damage to clothing. It is about 20 percent better in terms of energy efficiency than conventional European A-standard products,'' a company spokesman said.
LG will also reveal a double-door refrigerator, with a 617-liter capacity, and built with the company's third-generation ``linear'' compressor, which is designed to consume less power than conventional reciprocating compressors.
LG is the top selling refrigerator brand in France and Spain, the company said.
LED Is New Buzzword
The green theme is also becoming dominant in flat-panel televisions, a rare electronics segment that had been relatively free from the pressure to cut power consumption.
Electronics giants such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony have competed over the years to make television screens thinner and larger, which also meant that the products have consumed more power than the smaller ones of earlier generations.
However, television makers are now more serious about energy-saving than they ever were, and this had made light-emitting diode (LED) backlit televisions an emerging industry standard.
LED backlighting, aside of its improvements in picture quality, also allows companies to design slimmer television sets that consume less electricity.
Samsung, the world's biggest electronics maker and top television player, is introducing a LED backlit liquid crystal display (LCD) television at IFA, which has a separate seven-inch LCD display on its remote control. The screen acts as a smaller, handheld television that allows viewers to surf through other channels while watching a different program on the main television set.
Not to be outdone by its Korean rival, LG is revealing a LED backlit television at the IFA. The television comes with a remote control installed with a motion sensor that allows viewers to change channels by flicking their wrists.
LG will also introduce a 15-inch television using active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) displays. 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.
Samsung also plans to introduce 14-inch and 31-inch OLED televisions eventually.