Samsung, LG Positive About Quarterly Results

Yun Jong-yong, center, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, looks at LG Electronics’ latest premium ‘Viewty’ phone, as Nam Yong, left, vice chairman of LG Electronics, explains its features on the first day of the 2007 Korea Electronics Show that kicked off Tuesday in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul.


ILSAN, Gyeonggi Province _ Amid a sharp decline in prices of DRAM chips, Samsung Electronics has shown confidence in its third-quarter earnings.

``I hope that Samsung Electronics’ quarterly earnings will be better,’’ Yun Jong-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, said Tuesday. He was attending the five-day 2007 Korea Electronics Show (KES) at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, which kicked off Tuesday.

Yun said he sees a positive outlook for the global chip market, as Apple’s introduction of iPhone has not helped boost global demand for NAND chips.

Samsung’s average selling price of DRAM chips fell more than 50 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, while prices of NAND flash memory chips, commonly used in digital cameras and music players, plunged 40 percent, according to industry estimates.

Analysts say Samsung is likely to post a net profit of 2.2 trillion won for the July-Sept. period, up from 2.19 trillion won a year ago. The world’s largest maker of computer chips will release its quarterly results on Friday.

Asked about a plan to increase the portion of production of LCD TVs, Yun reaffirmed a plan to focus on the business.

``Samsung will increase the production portion of LCD TVs to 60 percent of the total. The possibility is about 70 and 80 percent,’’ Yun said, adding that 30-inch LCD panels will play a major part in the LCD business, while larger panels will go to the PDP business.

Touching on the printer market, Yun said the company is making efforts to strengthen its competitiveness in the profitable laser printer market.

Samsung’s rival LG Electronics also painted a brighter picture for its quarterly earnings.

``Third-quarter earnings will meet market expectations,’’ said Nam Yong, vice chairman of LG Electronics.

Nam said LG’s latest 5.1 megapixel Viewty handsets will sweep European and North American markets in two years and the phone’s sales will exceed those of its Chocolate handsets. LG has sold more than 14 million Chocolate phones around the world since its debut in 2005.

``We will intensify a premium marketing strategy in our mobile phone business while continuing to focus on low-priced phones,’’ Nam said, noting that low-priced phones are bringing sizable profits.

The Korea Electronics Show will display over 250,000 products, including full high-definition TVs, full high-definition home theater systems and dual format DVD players as organizers estimate export talks at $2.5 billion.

Attention is focused on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs as Sony has exhibited the industry’s first commercialized 11-inch, thin-screen OLED TVs in more than 100 booths at the electronics fair.

```Full HD World is Sony’s top pursuit in the industry. The strategy means Sony will lead `Full HD Lifestyle’ by encouraging users to experience various combined contents from music, movies and games,’’ said Morita Masao, senior vice president of Sony.

The primary benefit of OLED displays over traditional LCDs is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function, and consume less power during operation. Eventually, OLED displays are expected to be more efficiently manufactured than LCDs and plasma displays.

Samsung’s Yun stayed at the Sony booth for nearly 10 minutes and showed keen attention to the 11-inch OLED TV. Samsung is strengthening moves to improve its organic light-emitting diode production lines in a bit to secure the next ``golden goose'' in the consumer electronics market. LG Philips also said Tuesday it will finish acquisition talks with LG Electronics over OLED division to get synergy on the business.

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