Gyeonggi-Do, KOREA, Under the theme of “What IT Will Be!”, Korea Electronics Show (KES 2012) kicked off in KINTEX, Gyeonggi-Do on October 9, and is set to last for four days. Emphasizing the convergence of IT and other industries, Jong-yong Yun, a chairman of the Korea Electronics Association (KEA) said in the opening ceremony that, “This exhibition is especially meaningful at a time when industrial boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred, centering around electronics and IT; various technologies and industries are beginning to converge; and new growth engine industries are emerging based on creativity.”
Suk-woo Hong, a minister of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) said that, “Korean IT industry has steadily grown up for the past years, and has accomplished a great achievement. The IT industry in the future will be the convergence between industries rather than individual development.”
With the main theme of ‘convergence’, KES 2012 presented four keywords: Re-visioning – the advancement of convergence among high-tech IT products such as vehicles, shipbuilding, medical service and IT, as well as among other industries such as bio and robots; Naturalization – smartization of IT device which shows close to actual image rather than screen images; Barrier-Free – easy accessibility of home appliances by freely and conveniently using them even with one’s eyes closed and without saying a word; Barrier-Free – a leap into the digital life era beyond analogue life.
As well as including major Korean electronics companies such as Samsung, LG and SK, 800 companies, 12 other countries participated featuring around 250 companies from overseas to demonstrate the latest convergence trends, OLED TV, and new smart phones.
Two major IT companies - Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics - fiercely competed with each other with the latest technologies. OLED TV attracted visitors’ attention the most. Samsung’s 55-inch OLED TV ES9500, and smart dual view function of OLED TV, in which sound and images from two channels in one TV were particularly eye-catching. LG Electronics demonstrated 55-inch OLED TV with 4mm thick weighing only 10kg. They also unveiled 84-inch UD 3DTV with over 2 meter(213 cm) diagonal.
For smart phones, Galaxy Note 2 offers a 5.5-inch HD super AMOLED display and the latest Android platform 4.1 Jelly Bean, 1.6GHz quad-core AP, providing the best visual enjoyment and excellent multitasking function. LG Optimus View 2 added functions of Q Remote which controls home appliances like audio and air conditioners through an infrared ray signal instead of remote control, and Q Slide which shows two entire images on one display by adjusting transparency.
This year, ‘KES Award’ was established to give awards to 19 products with creativity and innovation that overseas buyers seek the most. International Semiconductor Exhibition (i-SEDEX) and International Meeting on Information Display (IMID) were also held to provide the latest trends and technology development within the display and semiconductor industry.
