Samsung had no new products on the booth, although this was the first time that the LEDs shown at IFA had been shown in the region, and Samsung had based its booth on the vertical markets served by its B2B operation. There were no consumer products or mobile phones (although an area was devoted to the Knox security products). We heard that there is interest in the LED products for inside and outside use, but projects have not developed yet. Samsung is optimistic that it will do well out of the World Expo in 2020. Hotel room numbers in Dubai are expected to double, around 275,000 jobs should be created and a new city, Dubai South, will be developed as well as a new airport. There should be many opportunities for digital signage.
The company has seen some success with the SoC concept in the region and won a big deal with McDonalds in the area for QSR boards. These use the integrated clients in the Samsung sets and also use the standard Samsung “Magic Info” software, rather than a third party application.
Samsung has also had success in the education market, winning a tender for a “Smart Learning” project in Dubai and has won an order for 560 82″ eBoards recently.
Samsung has also been involved with the “Smart Palm” project. This project is aiming to put an artificial palm tree with solar panels on the top in many of the parks and beaches in Dubai. The palm provides Wi-Fi connectivity (through a deal with local telco, Du) and a digital signage panel as well as a 21.5″ touch panel for connectivity. A bench close to the palm provides mobile device charging points. The project is being run as a private venture, relying on advertising and sponsorship income. This is challenging as the very high heat (50º C) in the Dubai summer means that parks are closed for half the year, as nobody wants to go out into that heat.
