The world’s major electronics company Samsung Electronics Co. that has been seeking to prop up its premium TV sales trailing those of its smartphones and memory chip products has waged an unusual marketing war against its archrival LG Electronics Inc., the world’s leading organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV maker.

According to multiple industry sources on Sunday, South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics last month uploaded a 103-second-long video on YouTube that compares its TV display technology using the quantum dot technology with LG’s OLED TV technology. In the video, it tests the image quality of each technology and hints at the superiority of the QLED over the OLED.

The video begins with the image of a stage installed with each QLED and OLED panel side by side in a large hall. Then several professional gamers are invited to play Blade & Soul role-playing game for 12 hours. The video ends pointing out image retention on the OLED screen with a message saying “image retention has not appeared on the QLED display after 12 hours of testing.”

Industry observers consider the recent attack on its rival’s technology by Samsung Electronics a rare move in the industry where companies try to avoid direct attack on rivals’ products.

Samsung Electronics’ latest marketing war to defame LG Electronics’ TV technology comes after its TV sales have lagged those of its long-time rival in the global premium TV market. Samsung Electronics that also uses small and medium-sized OLED panels for its smartphones have been promoting QLED technology for its large, premium TVs against LG Electronics that has seen a steady rise in sales of its TVs fitted with large-sized OLED screens. But the QLED TV has not been successful in steeling attention from the OLED TV as much as it expected.

According to Samsung Electronics’ earnings, its consumer electronics division has raised 700 billion won ($621.6 million) in operating income for the first six months of this year, less than 720 billion won of what LG Electronics’ TV business has raked in alone over the same period. This is also a stark contrast to its smartphone and chip-making businesses that are the world’s biggest.

Industry sources note that the latest video is also in line with Samsung Electronics’ marketing strategy that compared the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy Note 4 with Apple Inc.’s iPhone series years ago, opening attacking the shortfalls in the rival’s device.

Although LG Electronics has not issued any official statement against the Samsung video, it is known to have expressed displeasure. Industry sources expect that the behind-the-scene competition between the two Korean electronics giants would intensify in the TV market following the recent market war waged by Samsung Electronics.

By Lee Dong-in

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]