Display - Samsung Ditches Curved-Screen TVs
November 01, 2004
Samsung announced that it will permanently discontinue all production of curved-screen TVs starting in early 2005. The company is shifting its entire focus to more high-end offerings such as projection TVs, PDP (Plasma Display Panels), and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) TVs.
The move toward exclusive production of flat-screen TVs was expected to happen by the end of 2005, but the Korean electronics maker decide to move the date forward due to a perception within the company that value-line curved-screen TVs were a drag on their brand name.
The only places were Samsung is currently manufacturing curved-screen TVs are India and Africa. The company has already ceased making and selling curved-screen models in East Asia and the US. Samsung recently reopened a factory in Brazil that is expected to produce 300,000 flat-screen TVs a year.
Other Korean makers are not pulling the plug on production of curved-screen TVs just yet. LG Electronics is no longer producing curved-screen TVs for the domestic market, but its factories in Southeast Asia and India are still producing for local markets. Daewoo Electronics still relies fairly heavily on sales of curved-screen TVs, as curved-screen TV sets account for up 60 percent of its total production worldwide, according to the company.