TV Makers Put Priority on Design Over Technology

By Cho Jin-seo

Staff Reporter

Design is the priority for Korean TV makers this year as they began to acknowledge that cutting-edge technology products alone are no good if they are too ugly or too complicated to use.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the two leading TV makers of South Korea, pronounced that they will more focus on making TVs that look good and that are easy to use this year on the opening day of the world's largest electronics expo.

At the Consumer Electronics Show opened in Las Vegas Monday, the two firms showed lineups of flat-panel TVs, which are more viewer-friendly that their previous products, they said.

LG's flagship lineup is LG60, which is only 4.5 centimeters thick. It also removed the usual gap between the screen and the housing, making the set appear to be a seamless sheet of glass.

``These models are based around insight from our customers. They strike an ideal balance between design and technology, with each complementing the other,'' said Kang Shin-ik, chief of LG's Digital Display Company, adding that the firm plans to become one of the world's big three this year.

Samsung aggress that technology cannot fare well without good design.

``The leaders of the next generation of consumer electronics will be defined not just by the largest screens, clearest sounds or sharpest resolutions,'' said Park Jong-woo, Kang's counterpart at Samsung. "They will lead by providing the most complete and connected user experience, delivering the best content from anywhere through beautifully designed products that make emotional connections."

Samsung, the world's leading TV seller for the past two years, showed a new TV of which the frame has opaque coloring at the annual expo, which is the barometer of the year's electronics market trend. Korean media visiting the site soon nicknamed the TV ``chameleon,'' as the frame changes color from black to purple depending on the brightness of the room.

For years, the two Korean companies have been famous for their tedious competition for making the largest liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma display panel (PDP) TVs. The size race has come to an end early last year when they both realized it is meaningless to mass-produce screens larger than 100 inches unless consumers have living rooms big enough for such monster TVs.

They also engaged in the high-definition battle, producing TVs and other video devices that can show pictures with tinier dots. LG grabbed the highlight of the same event last year by making the world's first Blu-ray and HD-DVD player that can play both formats. But its sales were far short of expectations, as consumers find little need in the next-generation technologies.

This year, the major trend in the electronics industry is to provide easy-to-use devices that can lure consumers to the higher level of technologies without scaring them off, Park says.

``The world of the consumer is rapidly evolving, from the sources of the content they are viewing to the influences on how their products are designed," he said. ``Our products and technologies not only achieve the highest levels of performance and beautiful design, but they connect together the user experience in a way that simplifies life.''

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr