Samsung hosts insider expo for growth with ‘disruptive technologies’

South Korean tech titan Samsung is fiercely seeking innovative growth in the absence of its de facto leader by holding a closed-door exhibition this week, according to sources on Sunday.

At Samsung’s corporate campus in Giheung, Gyeonggi Province, the company is holding a three-day tech exhibition -- the Samsung Tech Fair -- from Monday through Wednesday, organized by Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, according to sources.

The annual fair is held every fall to provide executives and employees of Samsung affiliates with ideas of new technologies Samsung is planning to develop both with mid- and long-term plans.

This year’s theme is “Disruptive Technologies Start Here,” according to a Samsung official.

About a hundred up-to-date technologies Samsung affiliates have recently commercialized or plan to will be exhibited and demonstrated at the fair, the official said. 

“Ahead of planned personal reshuffles and some expected changes in the organizational structure of the electronics unit, the overall atmosphere here in Giheung is pretty uneasy,” said an official at one of the Samsung affiliates. “The tech fair may hint at some directions for growth afterward.” 

Expected technologies to be unveiled include voice recognition, big data analytics, three-dimensional displays and mobile health care technologies, which the Korean tech mogul has recently paid attention to.

Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center in Silicon Valley has recently announced four key areas of focus for Samsung’s future: smart machines, Internet of Things, digital health care and data center.

Under the macro-level strategies set in the US tech valley, the hardware-oriented company is making attempts to enhance software power in order to compete with global IT behemoths like Apple, Google and Amazon.

Samsung Electronics is said to show upcoming smartphones equipped with improved voice-activated artificial intelligence algorithms.

In cooperation with Samsung Display, the electronics unit is expected to unveil its plan for developing foldable display smartphones.

Its mobile chief, President Koh Dong-jin, has announced that Samsung aims to launch a foldable smartphone next year.

Technologies to improve the quality of liquid crystal displays for Samsung TVs, IoT-based electronics parts for connected vehicles under works with Harman and wearable devices for telemedicine will make their respective debuts at the exhibition.

The tech giant’s leader Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has been sentenced to a five-year term for bribery in links with ousted President Park Geun-hye. He is seeking an appeal.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)