Dubai: LG Electronics expects to turn the current crises over falling oil prices and political instability into an opportunity, its regional head said.
“Even though we don’t expect revenue growth to happen this year, we will try to increase our market share,” Kevin Cha, executive vice-president at LG Electronics for the Middle East and Africa region, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the LG InnoFest 2016 where the Korean giant displayed its new products to be rolled out for the year.
LG has become the first vendor to display its new products, which were unveiled at the recently held Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas, in the region.
The South Korean giant showed its all-new Signature series of smart products — smart TVs to refrigerators, washing machines and air purifiers, apart from the vacuum cleaners and air-conditioners.
LG’s 2016 Ultra HD OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV line-up supports the industry-standard high-dynamic range (HDR) formats established by the world’s leading broadcasters, film studios and consumer electronics manufacturers, such as HDR10 and DolbyVision HDR technology, making them among the first to be compatible with all formats.
LG’s OLED TV comes standard with Dolby surround sound and has ultra-high definition (UHD) certification. The entire line-up consists of eight new models in flat and curved configurations and various sizes.
Research firm IHS Technology expects worldwide TV shipments this year to be flat compared with 2015, though shipments of higher-margin ultra high-definition (4K) TVs are expected to surge 73 per cent.
Chris Lee, refrigerator sales and marketing manager at LG MEA, said that LG’s OLED line-up is among the industry’s first to be certified as “Ultra HD Premium,” meeting the stringent premium performance requirements released by the UHD Alliance, which consists of TV manufacturers, broadcasters and content providers.
“The Ultra HD Premium certification applies only to products that meet the most demanding performance standards for resolution, peak luminance, black levels, wide colour gamut and audio quality, among other criteria,” he said.
To make HDR streaming contents available to consumers, LG has teamed up with major global content providers including Netflix, Dolby and Amazon.
Cha said that LG has been pursuing a premium-market strategy, providing the opportunity for the company to position itself as a technology innovator with a flair for convenience, design and style.
The overall regional consumer electronics market in 2015 was down but “we remained flat despite devalued local currency, falling oil price and unstable political situations in the region.”
Despite a flat year, he said that LG increased its market share in TV, mobile phone and B2B business.
He expects the year to be worse than last year due to “slower economic conditions and low consumer confidence”.
“We are targeting premium or rich customers in the region for our Signature products as their purchasing power will not decrease,” he said.
The Signature products will be available in the second half of this year.
