DESIGN IS EVERYTHING*
DESIGN IS EVERYTHING* “Design” is a great word. Whether in engineering or in creative endeavours, as a verb, “to design” refers to the process of originating and developing a plan. Designing a marketing/communication campaign can often be even more important than the design of the product itself as sales reps and consumers are bombarded with an overload of conflicting information. We at Cleverdis therefore hold the belief that the growth of the CE Industry today will be increasingly dependent upon INFORMATION DESIGN. Through information design, presented in the form of Cleverdis SPECIALreports, many of the world’s top CE companies benefit from the fact that we are able to put information into perspective for a market that hungers for newfound clarity and simplicity. IFA has this year chosen Cleverdis as the “information designer” of IFA INTERNATIONAL, the official English language daily magazine for the show. Find our more on www.cleverdis.com. *According to wikipedia: Information design has been defined as the art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness. Information Intelligence
MEET THE VISIONARIES Reinforcing a “cooperation culture” Dr. Jongwoo Park was named President of the Digital Media Business of Samsung Electronics in January 2007. With annual sales of over billion encompassing CE and IT, Digital Media Business has a broad array of products including digital televisions, Blu-ray Disc players, digital audio players, monitors, printers and laptops. Since 2001, Dr. Park also has had responsibility as the President & General Manager of the Digital Printing Division of Samsung Electronics. In this role, Dr. Park has looked after worldwide printer business, printing and imaging core technology development and manufacturing processes as well as business alliances. After joining Samsung Semiconductors in 1992, Dr. Park has led the design of the world’s first 16Mb SOI DRAM, 1GB DRAM, and 1Gb NAND flash memory. He holds 18 patent licenses within Korea, and 13 international patent licenses. Dr. Park holds a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Yonsei University and also holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Park, you were named President of the Digital Media Business of Samsung Electronics in January 2007. How has the direction of your organisation changed since your arrival? Samsung’s Digital Media Business consists of 4 divisions. Each division is managed separately to optimise performance. Having said that, I have been reinforcing a “cooperation culture” to strengthen synergies and identify new opportunities. Under this cooperation culture, Samsung has been able to launch a wide range of products with a consistent design and user interface, like our TV, Duo Player and Home Theater System solution. The result is a much stronger user experience, with both design and function working together seamlessly. My aim is to build on our broad product portfolio strengths by coordinating product development even more closely in the future. I have also been emphasising the importance of corporate business, or what we call “B2B business”. With different value propositions, sales channels and service models, B2B business is very different from consumer-oriented retail business. Although B2B business accounts for nearly 50% of the total electronics market value, only 30% of our revenues come from this area today. It’s undoubtedly a huge opportunity for us! How would you personify Samsung’s product range as we approach Q4, and what will be your main thrusts at IFA? Samsung Electronics is passionate about developing products that offer real benefits to our consumer and business customers. Indeed, the user experience must exceed all expectations. Our current product range was developed and designed with this clear objective in mind. At this year’s IFA, Samsung unveils products that will inspire the way we live and interact, whether in the home, outdoors, or in the office. For the home, I would like to highlight our cutting-edge LED LCD TV, Duo Player, Blu-ray home theater system and DLP projector. Samsung’s expanded range of Full High-Definition LCD TVs includes our innovative LED LCD TV (F9 series, 52/70 inch), with new LED Smartlighting technology, known as “local dimming.” The TV intuitively senses the TV signal and adjusts the brightness level by turning on and off the right combination of backlight units to produce a stunning dynamic contrast ration of 500,000 to 1. The results are blacker blacks and brighter colours, for the most amazing picture you have ever seen! Furthermore, with LED technology, the TV uses significantly less power (30% reduction). We have noted the launch by Samsung of a new 70” Full HD LCD TV with LED backlighting. What are the plans for this in Europe? In fact, Samsung already introduced the largest (70 inch) commercially available full high-definition LCD TV last June in Korea. However, our newest TV boasts Samsung’s very best image enhancement technologies and employs a light-emitting diode (LED) backlight instead of the conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) version. Moreover, Samsung’s unique local dimming technology enables the LED backlight to be turned off in dark image areas, delivering a dynamic contrast ratio of 500,000:1. At the same time, power consumption is lowered by as much as 30%. A high-gloss, “piano black” bezel and titanium chrome trim accentuate the elegance and sophistication of Samsung’s new 70” full-HD LCD TV. We have also incorporated dual hidden speakers and rear woofers to deliver rich sound quality to match the larger-than-life onscreen images. We plan to launch this exciting new model in Europe during the fourth quarter. As Europe is the strongest market for LCD TVs, I believe there will be strong demand for this premium model. Much of your background at Samsung has been in storage devices, and today in your new portfolio you manage a different kind of storage device for Samsung in the shape of the BD player. How important do you feel Blu-ray Disc will be in driving the HD market in Europe, especially given the fact that TV channels are slow in instigating HD in this zone? In the absence of HD programming in some European countries, Blu-ray Disc becomes instrumental in meeting rising demand for HD content. With a growing number of movie titles, it will act as a bridge until more comprehensive HD programming becomes available. I am extremely optimistic about the role our products will play in shaping the HD experience in the home. IFA International • Saturday, 1 st September 2007 11
