Last month Samsung Electronics announced its growth target for this year, aiming for a 10 percent sales increase from last year. As investigations continue on the parent group's alleged slush fund, this was the first time the world's top electronics company posted a clear-cut sales target for 2008.

The W70 trillion (US$1=W980) was seen by some analysts as rather low for the giant manufacturer. But Samsung Electronics explained it needed to be cautious.

Its chief executive, Yun Jong-yong, said the market of the company's key products, such as semiconductors and liquid crystal displays, was slowing and with the negative effects of the subprime mortgage crisis along with soaring oil prices and an unstable financial market, the business environment for the company was uncertain.

But this has not stopped the giant manufacturer from employing aggressive marketing strategies and wooing consumers with new eye-catching technology.

Working with popular video-sharing website YouTube, Samsung is planning a feature that allows people to watch videos posted on YouTube on their televisions. Samsung Electronics plans to make this product available to consumers by the end of this month at a price of about W5 million.

Also, last week the company released new cell phones that can send data up to a speed of 2 megabits per second, five times faster than most phones on the market. This new gadget will help the company strengthen its position in the mobile market as more and more people use cell phones for Internet surfing and younger generations enjoy uploading videos instantly on the Web.

This follows an announcement made at the Mobile World Congress in February, where the world's second largest handset maker by market share said it would focus more on mobile Web business.

Arirang News