(News Focus) Samsung aims to become global tech powerhouse on 40th anniversary

By Lee Youkyung
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest
manufacturer of memory chips and flat-screen TVs, is eager to become a true
technology powerhouse as it marks the 40th anniversary of its founding.

The company, whose anniversary falls on Sunday, opened its doors in 1969 with
knock-down radios and black-and-white TV sets, but has since grown into a global
presence in the fields of consumer electronics and hi-tech information technology
(IT), which encompass liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and mobile handsets.
Its brand value is currently estimated at over US$17 billion, with the aggregate
value of its listed stocks worth more than Japan's Sony, which it had benchmarked
as a growth model in the past.
Indicative of its importance, market watchers from all over the world are keenly
awaiting the release of its third quarter earnings, planned for Friday, which
will likely be followed by an announcement on Samsung's vision for the next
decade.
Exact details on future plans have yet to be made public, but Samsung executives
recently said the company plans to expand its flagship product groups from the
current four -- memory chips, LCD panels, TVs and mobile handsets -- to six,
including printers and system LSI or non-memory chips. It also aims to add nine
products to its current list of 11 global top products by 2013.
In the semiconductor field, Samsung said it will strive to push up revenues to
US$25.5 billion in 2012, up more than 50 percent from this year's estimate of
US$16 billion. The company is the world's No. 1 manufacturer of dynamic random
access memory (DRAM) chips and NAND flash memory, controlling 36 percent 40
percent of the global market, respectively.
Kwon Oh-hyun, the head of semiconductor unit, said that the company will focus on
trying to widen the technology gap with its rivals in the coming years that can
help solidify its dominant position.
On the display panel front, Samsung plans to redouble its efforts to develop
next-generation products, such as flexible displays and solar energy panels that
are gaining more importance as the world looks to "greener" products to save the
environment and save energy.
Samsung's mobile handset division, whose world rank came next to leader Nokia,
aims to manufacture more high-end products for consumers in developed countries,
as well as stepping up production in smartphones, which are attracting new
customers.
The company's mobile phones have made solid gains in the large U.S. market and in
many European countries.
Such noteworthy gains, however, are seen as falling short of providing a roadmap
of the future since the company can no longer follow in the footsteps of others.
"A runner-up could follow the lead of the trendsetter and try to come from behind
to overtake the leader, but the front-runner must create new products and markets
based on new technology," said Choi Gee-sung, president of Samsung's digital
media operations. He said failure to do so would allow such businesses to be
usurped by competitors following on its heels.
Such remarks, market insiders said, indicate that the company may be gearing up
for a new phase that can help set priorities and highlight the direction of the
company as it tries to move ahead of the pack and lead the worldwide market.
They recalled Samsung implemented sweeping changes several times in the past as
it prepared to make the next leap forward.
In the 1983 "Tokyo Declaration," Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull announced the
company's entry into the memory chip business despite wide-scale skepticism in
the market about the company's capabilities.
This was followed in 1993 with the "Frankfurt Declaration" made by then Chairman
Lee Kun-hee, the current de facto head of the family-owned business empire, who
called for a complete overhaul of the company so it could become a global player
in electronics.
The company set up a comprehensive management strategy for the next decade in
1997, focusing on new core business sectors that covered mobile communications
systems, networking, non-memory chips and large-scale integrated circuits. Its
digital televisions, LCDs and personal digital assistants (PDAs), large color
TVs, monitor, laptops, mobile phones and memory chips started to compete with
foreign trendsetters.
For the future, company insiders and industry analysts predicted that Samsung may
move to consolidate its technological leadership in all the business spheres it
dominates while at the same time developing new growth engines in the sectors of
IT solutions and devices, energy and environment, and biohealth.
If such efforts are successful, Samsung, which has enjoyed preeminent status as
South Korea's largest conglomerate, may become a common household name throughout
the world.
ylee@yna.co.kr
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