High-End Home Appliances Gaining in Popularity
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Luxury home appliances are gaining popularity among wealthy customers even as the local economy is still struggling to recover.
Following in the footsteps of auto and clothes makers, consumer electronics firms have recently been launching a series of top-class products to meet growing demands from the market's highest-income shoppers.
Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, the nation's two largest makers, are both in the fine-tuning stage before releasing their latest three-dimension LED-backlit LCD television (LED TV) sets.
Set to hit the shelves as early as later this month, the sets are expected to boast largest-ever displays among homegrown models. While the biggest LED TV released last year was a 55-inch television, Samsung is preparing a 65-inch product and LG is set to debut its ambitious 72-inch edition.
Their biggest hurdle is likely to be price. Considering last year's 55-inch LED TVs were sold at 6.5-6.9 million won ($5,662-6,010) here, the price of the upcoming high-profile sets are forecast to be tagged at nearly 10 million won, industry watchers say.
The companies are taking the high-end approach when it comes to their new refrigerators this year as well. Samsung's latest 7.4-liter Zipel product costs between 1.9-2.3 million won, while LG's latest 7.5-liter Dios refrigerator debuted with price tags of 2.3-2.7 million won.
However, the prices pale in comparison to several imported luxury home-product brands.
The Beovision 4 103-inch, a full-HD PDP-television by Danish-based Bang & Olufsen, costs 202 million won.
A washing machine with 8-kilogram capacity from premium German maker Miele sells for 4.5 million. In contrast, Korean products of nearly double the capacity are tagged at around 1.7 million won.
The current rising demand for high-end goods will be sustained because they meet the needs of both makers and target consumers, according to the industry.
"They are more profitable for companies and satisfy the urge for higher-class consumption," a local analyst said on condition of anonymity. "Consequently, the current luxury home appliance market is likely to stay lucrative, as long as the wealthy class prospers here."