Samsung is targeting 15 percent growth in 2011 sales of flat-screen TVs to 45 million units, and hopes to more than double shipments of pricier LED sets. And it's going to want us to keep using those special glasses for 3-D sets.
The world's largest maker of TVs aims to quadruple sales of 3-D TV sets to around 8 million-9 million units this year, while aggressively promoting Internet-enabled TVs to goose up margins as severe price competition keeps profits razor-thin.
Shaken by their failure to inspire consumers in a recession with a new generation of TVs, major producers from Samsung, LG Electronics to Sony all showed improved versions of 3-D and "smart" TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show, hoping to grab a bigger slice of an emerging market where no single player dominates.
The fight over the connected living room, which enables viewers to hook up TVs to Web shows and software stored in the cloud and on personal computers, is not short of aspirants with technology heavyweights from Google and Microsoft to Apple all joining the fray. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Samsung this year aims to sell 12 million Internet-enabled TVs, which sport access to its TV Appstore, video-streaming site Hulu and social networking sites such as Twitter. The 12 million figure would make up 27 percent of its total TV shipments this year.
"Smart TV is not a simple Internet-enabled device or a computer with a large screen and no keyboard," said Kim Hyun-suk, senior vice president at Samsung's TV division.
"It allows consumers to lean back and have access to all kinds of applications and content, and connect with other devices in the home."
Smart vs. dumb TVs
Samsung booked the biggest showing area among CES participants this year in Las Vegas to showcase a plethora of products from smart phones and tablets to TVs and cameras. It dedicated a large portion to Smart and 3-D TVs in particular, betting the global Smart TV market would grow to 30 million units this year.
DisplaySearch estimates that 21 percent of all TVs shipped in 2010 have Internet connectivity, and the segment is expected to grow at double-digit rates over the next four years, swelling to 122 million units by 2014.
On 3-D, Samsung attributed its slow takeoff last year to a combination of high prices, a lack of available content, and the discomfort of having to watch TV with heavy glasses.
"Most of those issues will be resolved to a large extent and the market will really take off," said Yoon Boo-keun, head of Samsung's TV division. "3-D premium has fallen to an affordable level, content keeps growing and glasses have also become much lighter."
"When people buy a TV, they look for a product they can use for the next six to seven years. With all those issues addressed, consumers are now very likely to buy 3-D sets."
In addition to a lack of 3-D content, however, one of the biggest obstacles for the new technology to take off is different 3D formats.
Samsung, which controlled more than 50 percent of the global 3-D TV market last year, is pushing for active-shutter glass technology, which requires special glasses with batteries, chips and switches to synchronize 3-D signals from TV sets.
Some producers, led by Japan's Toshiba, are introducing glasses-free 3D sets, while LG Electronics is placing a bet on a new display called film patterned retarder (FPR) that makes glasses much lighter, as 3D signals are embedded into TVs.
Affiliate LG Display, which makes the rival 3-D panel technology, hopes it gains traction by tapping major customers of LG Electronics, Sony, Vizio and Philips Electronics, raising the stakes in a head-on competition with Samsung.
Samsung argues moves by some TV manufacturers to introduce glasses-free sets could deter consumers from switching to 3-D sets by stoking expectations that such technology may come soon.
Glasses-free TVs "will deter 3-D market growth but what people are missing here is that it's unrealistic to make 3-D glasses-free in large screens and full high-definition at the same time. You have to sacrifice one of them," Samsung's Yoon said.
"Such technology will be limited to small screen sets for single viewer and it's not ready yet for a larger living room-type model."
