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Sarah Tew / CNET
LAS VEGAS — Samsung has been No. 1 seller of televisions around the world for the last nine years — and it’s keeping that lead even as the industry moves into ultra-high definition sets.
The company announced onstage at its annual Consumer Electronics Show press conference Monday that it has a 60 percent share of the market for ultra-high definition television sets, longhand for the 4K displays now displacing 1080 sets.
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Samsung’s mobile business gets most of the buzz nowadays, but it’s really the television business that turned Samsung into a tech powerhouse. The company sells about three TVs every second.
A quarter of all flat-panel TVs on the market in the US come from Samsung, according to market research firm NPD. The No. 2 vendor, Vizio, accounted for 16 percent of TVs sold in the 12 months ended in November, the most recent data available, and LG sold 9 percent. Samsung also shipped 41 percent of all smart TVs — Internet-connected flat-panel TVs with apps.
Samsung is historically the largest exhibitor at CES, and this year is no exception. The company announced nine new “SUHD” TVs, Samsung speak for UHD because the “S” stands for nothing except, maybe, Samsung. The lineup includes an extravagant 105-inch set that can, at the press of a button, curve the display inward and bend it back out for optimal viewing experience. If last year’s predecessor is any indication, Samsung’s newest 105-inch set could cost more than $120,000.
CNET’s live blog of Samsung’s 2015 CES press conference
While the “S” in SUHD has no meaning, it implies Samsung’s newest technology: quantum dots. The company is shifting away from OLED display technology and exclusively toward LCD with quantum nanocrystals. Those tiny components help amplify the color of the LEDs behind your display. Samsung hopes it can improve performance and best the OLED sets of LG Electronics, Samsung’s main competitor in the TV market.
Enhanced color, 4K UHD, LCD TVs using quantum dot technology will become more common this year, according to DisplaySearch. The research firm expects 1.3 million units will ship in 2015 and reach to 18.7 million in 2018.
Samsung shows off high-end SUHD TVs (pictures)
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