The company occupied 19% of the global LCD TV market in the first quarter. Their sales targets for LCD TV sets this year are 22 million, a 10% increase since last year.
Sue Shim, senior vice president of sales and marketing said: 2009 won’t be an easy year but we plan to maintain market leadership with new products such as LED TV. However, the target is still below DisplaySearch’s 15% growth in the global LCD TV market. Mr. Shim said Samsung had several sets of targets including a best-case scenario though the details were not given as reported by Reuters. A key figure defining the future growth of Samsung is the latest LCD television models using light-emitting diodes (LED) as light source, in lieu of bulkier and less energy efficient cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs). But a major barrier for widespread adoption of LED sets is the price premium as it could be as much as $700 over a same sized LCD model.Mr. Shim said After four years of using an LED television, the costs savings alone would be as much as the price of a 30-inch-grade LCD model. Going forward, the entire market will shift to LED. LED is the best television technology made available so far.”