Samsung Electronics’ liquid crystal display (LCD) group is being faced with a new product development challenge involving the global nature of competition within their industry. The emergence of the Taiwanese LCD panel industry seems to be posing a threat to Samsung Electronics’ dominance in this industry, particularly TFT-LCDs for notebook PCs. Samsung Electronics is also being faced with changing market trends in which their competitors were getting a jump-start on by diversifying into new product applications. The market was beginning to see a greater emphasis on digital technology to improve image quality. This application of LCD technology was also becoming increasingly popular with televisions, especially larger sized televisions, and to audiovisual and handheld displays. It appears that Samsung Electronics is too caught up and focused on the laptop computer market to pay much attention to these changing market trends. Samsung Electronics is being faced with the dilemma of either going with a product that is well received in the market but whose leadership seems to be dwindling and moving towards the competition, or moving along with products for which the market is yet to be tested but has a potential for Samsung Electronics to leapfrog the competition.
Samsung Electronics can go many different routes which can result in many different consequences and involve much risk. They could ultimately stay on the same track that they are currently on and focus primarily on providing high-quality flat panels for notebook PC’s to the market. This would involve the highest risk and the company could suffer severely for it. It would allow global competition to move ahead in the market simply by keeping up with market trends and moving forward with ideas. Another option would be to get on board with the competitors and diversify into new product lines. This would involve much research in current market trends and a heavier investment in R&D which Samsung...