In 2015, Samsung Electronics set the TV sales goal at 60 million TVs. To bounce back from the sluggish sales in 2014, the IT & Mobile Communications (IM) Division will introduce premium specifications to its mid-to low-priced models, and accelerate its effort to increase the market share. As for the TV segment, SEC will continue its market leadership starting with the 4K UHD market.
SEC began the `Global Strategic Meeting for the Second Half of 2014` at the Suwon Digital City on December 17. The meeting will last for three days, and 500~600 executives from domestic and overseas business divisions will attend the meeting to share the business strategy for the coming year.
The TV sales goal for the new year is 60 million units, up about 10% over this year. The original goal was up to 63 million TVs, but lowered to 60 million units. It seems that the fact that there is no big event like the World Cup next year was taken into consideration. The general consensus is that the chase of Chinese TV makers is not something to worry about next year. The leading Chinese TV makers, Hisense and TCL`s share of the global market was in the 5~6% range last year and this year.
Samsung is likely to sell about 54 million TVs this year. The figure approximately matches the estimation (50 million~60 million units) made by Yoon Boo-geun, CEO of the Consumer Electronics (CE) Division, earlier this year. Having succeeded in raising its global market share this year too, Samsung will not change its premium-centered sales strategy much next year either. Coming into this year, SEC`s TV market share was 29.6% in Q1 (based on Display Search), 31.8% in Q2 and 25.5% in Q3, up 0.4%~5.8% QoQ. As for the quantum dot (QD) TV, which will be spotlighted next year, the company will respond to this segment after closely watching market trends. With the price of the UHD TV greatly reduced, SEC is planning to watch how the market will react to the QD TV, whose price will go up by about 15%.
SEC is also known to be planning to produce 340 million~380 million smartphones in 2015. The figure is 10~20% more than this year`s sales, but it is the most conservative goal since the IT & Mobile Communications (IM) Division started the smartphone business. The growth of the smartphone market is slowing down, but SEC plans to maintain its market share by reinforcing its mid-to low-priced product lineup. It appears that the company will adopt high-end materials and parts, such as metal cases and high-pixel camera modules, for its mid-to low-priced models and try to innovate the design. The goal for tablet PCs is around 45 million units, up 10% compared to this year`s sales. Its strategy is to differentiate itself from followers by applying the AMOLED to tablet PCs. Its main targets will be 7~8-inch mid-to low-priced products rather than 9-inch or larger expensive large-area products.
SEC plans to sell 45 million~50 million feature phones in 2015, half of its sales in 2014. As feature phones are replaced by smartphones in emerging markets like India and Central and South America, SEC seems to have set a realistic goal. The company is planning to utilize Chinese electronic manufacturing service (EMS) rather than directly producing feature phones. As SEC reinforced its low-price lineup, the proportion of the mid-to low-priced models is forecast to reach 60%. As the proportion of mid-to low-priced models increases, the average selling price (ASP) will be reduced by about 10%.
“In the recent organizational reshuffle, we brought a great deal of change to overseas subsidiaries,” said a high ranking SEC official. “It should be taken to mean doing things differently.”
Kim Joon-bae | joon@etnews.com Lee Hyeong-soo | goldlion2@etnews.com Jeong Jin-wook | jjwinwin@etnews.com