LG Electronics CEO lauds TV technology

By Kim Yoo-chul

LG Electronics CEO Koo Bon-joon

LG Electronics CEO Koo Bon-joon rarely talks to the media, although he is known as an outspoken, charismatic person among company executives.

He never gives clear answers to questions from reporters. Rather, Koo prefers to use vague metaphors, in the process giving reporters a hard time as they try to read between the lines in his wording.

He looked a different person when he praised the firm’s TV technologies, saying, “We’ve improved a lot in terms of TV technologies” during the LG Cinema 3D World Festival in Seoul. Its TV business is led by the CEO’s “right-hand man” Kwon Hee-won.

In this year’s event, about 540 TV products including LG’s in-house film-patterned three dimensional (3D) TVs, ultra high-definition (UHD) TVs and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs were displayed.

Korea’s popular girl groups SISTAR and Girls’ Generation held live performances to attract people.

During his one-hour stay at the festival, Koo paid much attention to content developers such as Blizzard Entertainment and Net Marble. Wearing 3D glasses, he was actively checking technologies and soliciting the view of participants.

He also showed keen interest in photo taking technologies in TVs. He asked the staff to print out a copy of his photo.

Since Koo was named CEO of the group’s most crucial electronics affiliate, LG Electronics has been investing more in hardware technologies because he believes LG is a technology company, not a “marketing firm,” company officials said.

LG defeated Samsung in the initial race for OLED TVs, releasing 55-inch OLED TVs in the local market months ago.

Helped by its flat-screen affiliate LG Display, LG Electronics is also aiming to get ahead of its rival Samsung for UHD TVs, another lucrative TV segment that all TV manufacturers consider to be the next cash-generator.

“LG remains a strong No. 2 in the TV market and has launched several advanced TV models that may help it to beat Japanese and Chinese rivals. We believe a meaningful recovery in LG’s TV business will be seen after the second quarter of this year,” said Sanford C. Bernstein Senior Analyst Mark Newman.

LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom hinted that there won’t be an imminent “peace treaty” with Samsung Display over the ongoing patent disputes.

Earlier, the two rivals agreed to end the patent dispute at a meeting arranged by the government.

Although working-level discussions are currently underway, their talks have been stalled because of entrenched differences on the values of OLED-related patents that each has.