It’s just been made official, Samsung has now been the global leader in the television market for two decades.
After 20 years as number one, Samsung is not just celebrating victory alongside focusing on the future, and even preparing for headwinds. SW Yong, who has been working on Samsung’s TVs for two decades, sat down with The Independent to talk about the achievement.
“I think it’s wonderful that we’ve been the number one global player for the past 20 years,” Yong says. “But what is more important is the future that lies ahead. I’m sure there will be challenges and risk.”
When I ask what has led to Samsung’s two decades of leadership, Yong focuses on consumer insight.
“The first thing is that we have consistently made the effort to really understand what consumers want,” he says. “And then the second part is our continuous effort to develop innovative products for our consumers.”
All very well, but Samsung is a huge company, and it still needs to be nimble and able to react quickly to stay ahead of other companies’ innovations. Yong says that being reactive is only part of it – and costs come into the thinking.
“It wasn’t just about creating innovative products,” Yong explains. “It also has to do with the process of how we try to create products that really satisfy consumers. A lot of our competitors use cost-effectiveness as a weapon, so we take that into consideration. When we first launched televisions, I think the focus was more on the form factor of the television, such as 3D TVs and curved TVs. Now competitor brands are targeting consumers and focusing on value for money, we have to provide that, but also advanced technology.
“And we have been trying to target not only the premium segment, but the mid- and entry-level segment as well, and trying to take the lead in the overall market. Market conditions continue to change, but at the same time, we need strategies to achieve not only providing affordability but also desirable technology: hitting two birds with one stone.”
Samsung can’t ignore competitors, and there must be a temptation to respond to what other brands are doing, I suggest, but Yong says there is a team dedicated to developing the mid-to-long-term roadmap. “According to that roadmap, we develop technologies.”
But Samsung has tricks up its sleeve: “Samsung is uniquely positioned to develop televisions because we have all of the technologies that enable us to have vertical integration: we have semiconductor technology as well as display technology within our group.”
Yong also acknowledges there are challenges ahead, however. “The market itself is no longer growing,” he says. “And the TV average sales price is stagnating, so we need to be more active in our efforts to recognize the value of our technology. Those are the specific headwinds.”
“The challenge is how we show our consumers the real value that our technology or our televisions bring to them,” he adds.
Additionally, not everyone wants to buy a new TV right now. Replacement cycles are much longer than for many other products. “For a television, the lifespan is seven to eight years,” Yong notes, compared to two or three years for mobile devices. There’s one bright light for a manufacturer wanting to sell a new TV: many customers bought their latest screen during Covid, so there are plenty of potential buyers wanting something new about now, and the added lure of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, plus the upcoming World Cup will also be drivers for sales.
The question for Samsung is how it persuades customers that the TV they want is one from Samsung and not a rival. Part of Yong’s answer is artificial intelligence, designed to add value to a television.
“In the past, TV was there just for us to watch content,” Yong says. “But as we move forward, the television will transform into an interactive device.” Samsung has something called the Vision AI Companion for this, and it’s a way for users to find new things they can do with their TV. “We see that the Vision AI Companion is rapidly growing compared to any other service that we are offering,” he notes, calling it a “testament to what consumers want. It’s not just about passively consuming content, you’re having conversations with your television.”
Such as what, I ask? “Say you’re watching television and you see a certain food. You’re curious – where can I buy that food? Where can I eat that food? Now you just directly ask your television.” Vision AI Companion also lets viewers see biographies of actors in movies or shows as they watch, to solve that frustrating “What have I seen him in before?” moment.
Samsung uses other AI services and connects to them to provide this information. “It’s an era where customers don’t search,” he says. “They go from search to conversation.”
On the hardware side, Micro RGB represents Samsung’s next major bet. Yong describes it as “the next level of display technology.” Whereas regular LED TVs take the white backlight behind the screen and convert it into colour, “With Micro RGB, you have these microscopic LED lights that emit their own colour independently,” he says.
Samsung seems to be pitching Micro RGB as a successor to OLED, though the strengths are different. “OLED can create the darkest black, inky black colours, that’s the strength of OLED,” Yong says. “Micro RGB is great if you’re trying to create ultra-large screens and enhance brightness,” he adds, acknowledging that OLED’s Achilles’ heel is it mostly doesn’t manage as much brightness as LED.
Samsung has now launched MicroRGB screens in sizes from 55 inches right up to 130 inches, though you may need a bigger room for that one, and the biggest screens cost a fortune right now.
“We are already making preparations to make Micro RGB more affordable,” Yong says. “It will take some time, but we want to increase accessibility. So, if you look at existing displays, they consist of multiple layers that produce the colours. With precision manufacturing of RGB, you're actually able to eliminate a lot of those layers. Which will mean we can reduce the unit cost of these televisions. Of course, we can't do it immediately. It will take some time.”
Twenty years ago, TVs were those boxy cathode-ray tube sets which looked glorious but were heavy and took up the corner of the room. But at least explaining a TV was simple then. Samsung has so many different kinds of TVs, from The Frame, which turns into a subtle art gallery when not being watched, to The Terrace, designed to sit outside, with a bright, water-resistant screen. Guiding customers to the right fit could be another challenge. “I think television these days is a lifestyle choice,” Yong says. “How does it fit into my space, and how does it fit with my lifestyle?”
But there’s another secret weapon Samsung can study as it innovates: how its TVs are used. “One of the strengths we have is that we have our own operating system,” he says.
That allows Samsung to see how consumers actually use features post-sale. “We can instantly incorporate consumer feedback and make improvements quickly. So, when we see on a real-time basis the feedback and the response from the consumers, we're able to immediately upgrade our system and our products. We can make improvements very quickly.”
When that feedback is positive, Yong describes the feeling: “That is our eureka moment.”
Asked about what comes next, Yong is more cagey. “There will be a device called a screen in the future,” he says. “But it is not yet decided what it will look like.”
What is clear is his belief that screens will be shared, become more interactive, and more experiential. “Screens will connect family members,” he says. “They will allow people to share experiences.”
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