LG Electronics: suddenly top tier.Its smiley See emoticon. smiley - emoticon logo is now ubiquitous--from airport trolleys in Asia to billboards on European autobahns. That's just the way Kim Ssang Su, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of LG Electronics, wants it. Long seen as an also-ran in consumer electronics, LG is now a formidable global player and one of the most recognizable brands behind only Sony, Samsung and Philips. It is the biggest maker of household air conditioners, one of the top three manufacturers of microwave ovens and a leading maker of refrigerators and washing machines (storage) washing machine - An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the "top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they were always set on "spin cycle". . LG is a big player in the flat-screen TV business, particularly in the large-screen plasma TV A flat panel TV that uses the plasma display technology. See flat panel TV, plasma display and LCD vs. plasma. segment. Its LG-Philips joint venture is also the largest maker of thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays for TVs and computer monitors. Even in the cellular handset business, where until four years ago it wasn't even among the world's top 10, LG Electronics has suddenly catapulted to fifth place, ahead of Sony-Ericsson, with a 7.5 percent global market share. Deals with Verizon and Cingular in the U.S. and Hutchison in Europe and Asia have helped LG leapfrog to the top. Analysts expect LG Electronics will displace Siemens to become the world's fourth largest cellular handset maker this year behind Nokia, Samsung and Motorola. Indeed, CEO Kim has set his sights even higher. He wants to displace Motorola and become one of the three biggest cellular makers, alongside Nokia and Samsung, by the end of next year. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LG Electronics was founded in 1958 as Goldstar, a small maker of electric fans. But it soon branched out into electronics and telecommunications. Now, digital display and media, digital appliances Any apparatus controlled by a computer. It may refer to an actual household appliance (coffee maker, toaster, etc.) that is computerized, but often refers to a handheld device such as a pager, cellphone or PDA. See Internet appliance. , information and communications systems and mobile handsets are key products. In 1995, it rebranded itself as LG Electronics after its chaebol chae·bol n. pl. chaebol A conglomerate of businesses, usually owned by a single family, especially in Korea. [Korean chaeb , or industrial group, called Lucky-Goldstar. To shake off its second-tier status, LG has dazzled daz·zle v. daz·zled, daz·zling, daz·zles v.tr. 1. To dim the vision of, especially to blind with intense light. 2. with cutting-edge products such as its Internet fridge and feature-rich 3G cell phones, as well as larger-than-life, flat-screen TVs like the 77-inch plasma screen monster that it has at the top of its line. The company wants to be the world's No. 3 appliance maker, behind Whirlpool and Electrolux, and among the top two or three digital TV players with Samsung and Sony. That means it aims to eclipse companies now regarded as Japan's second-tier players, such as Matsushita, NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. and Toshiba. The fact that LG Electronics could even dream of pulling ahead of those Japanese giants is stunning. But the company has emerged so fast that its ambitions are no longer pure fantasy. |
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