To Expand Shares in Global Premium TV Markets

Visitors take a look at products on display at the LG Signature brand launch event held at the National New Art Museum in Tokyo on June 4.

Samsung Electronics is focusing on the premium TV market in India, while LG Electronics is eyeing the Japanese market where few foreign TV brands have survived.

Samsung Electronics announced on June 5 that it launched the 2019 edition of its QLED 8K TV in India on June 4 (local time). The company released a full lineup of its premium TVs, ranging from 65 inch models to 98-inch ones. They are loaded with features customized for the Indian market, including a personal computer function that allows consumers to use TVs as PCs and a function that allows users to exchange content between TVs and smartphones.

LG Electronics vowed to make a foray into the Japanese premium home electronics market, which is called the "graveyard of foreign household appliances." As the first step towards its goal, LG Electronics launched LG Signature brand products at the National Art Center in Tokyo on June 5 before some 250 invited guests, who included local business partners and media people.

Industry watchers say that LG Electronics declared a challenge against Sony and Panasonic, which control the Japanese premium TV market. Although LG Electronics has a small market share in Japan, it regards Japan as a market with great potential as Japanese consumers favor organic light emitting diode (OLED) TVs. OLED TVs represent 69 percent of the market for premium TVs costing over US$2,000 per unit in Japan. In 2018, the OLED TV market in Japan grew 166 percent from the previous year.

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