November 28, 2024

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Samsung Electronics' brand-new OLED TV (Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics on Thursday debuted its first organic light-emitting diode TVs in a decade at home, making official its comeback to the fast-growing premium TV segment, which is currently dominated by its crosstown rival, LG Electronics.

The tech giant held a media event at its headquarters in Gangnam, southern Seoul, unveiling its brand new TV lineup this year, which also included its latest high-end LCD TVs, branded as Neo Quantum LED or Neo QLED TVs.

The world’s largest TV maker in terms of shipments showed confidence in the quality of its new OLED TVs, which come in three 55-inch, 66-inch and 77-inch models.

“We have succeeded in realizing top-tier brightness and vivid color by using our own technology, based on the original strength of OLED technology,” a Samsung official said.

Samsung has topped the global TV market for a whopping 17 consecutive years, most of which it had poured more resources into upgrading LCD TVs.

Back in 2013, the company launched its first OLED TV to compete with LG to get an earlier edge in the nascent market. However, it ditched the business the next year, citing production difficulties and high costs. When it comes to smaller OLED displays for mobile devices, Samsung owns almost 70 percent of the market share.

During the media event, Samsung officials hinted at no immediate change in their current marketing strategy which focuses on Neo QLED TVs.

Samsung said preorders for the new TV models exceeded a combined 1,200 units, adding that Neo QLED and OLED models made up 80 percent and 20 percent of the total number, respectively.

Samsung’s comeback into the OLED market comes amid robust growth in the pricier TVs despite a slowdown in the overall TV market globally.

Samsung said it also plans to release a 98-inch model soon to meet the growing demand for bigger TV screens.

On Wednesday, LG Electronics also held a press briefing ahead of the official release of its 2023 TV lineup next week while celebrating its 10th year of launching its first OLED TVs.

The world's No. 1 OLED TV maker, which dominates almost 60 percent of OLED TV sales globally, welcomed more tech firms, including Samsung, joining the business, as more players are expected to help expand the market size overall.

Samsung set the prices of its new OLED TVs at 3.09 million won ($2,340) and 7.99 million won, which appear to be part of a strategic pricing policy considering LG’s OLED TVs are priced slightly higher at 3.19 million won to 9 million won.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)