The History of Samsung Electronics (2): Diversification and Expansion (1971~1974)

Black-and- White TVs exported to Panama 

To meet the increasing demands of the public, Samsung started to invest heavily into the development of television sets. In November 1970, Samsung finally succeeded on producing 12” vacuum tube black-and-white TV. 

Since then, Samsung had improved the quality of its TV and Samsung managed to export its black-and-white TVs to Latin America after just two months of their production. 

Affiliate company Samsung Electrics, Co, Ltd Established

In a desire to become more independent, Samsung Electronics expanded its business by manufacturing the products on its own.  

In September 1971, Samsung Electrics, Co, Ltd is established in order to develop new products. By October 1972, a table calculator factory and a TV factory were completed.. 

Mass production begins

In addition, Samsung Electronics took over domestic TV production lines from Samsung Corporation and established a factory for Braun-tube bulb factory. After extensive investment and expansion of production lines, Samsung established two black-and-white TV lines which would produce 480 thousand TVs per year. 

Development of transistor black and white TV (Maha 506)

As Samsung established their production system and accumulated electronics technology, they pushed to produce their own TV model. 

Their first products was 19” transistor black and white TV which was developed in April, 1973. The TV was named was Maha 506 and become a sensational hit in South Korea. 

Launch frost-free refrigerator and washer

With help from Sanyo Electrics, Samsung was able to upgrade home appliance technology. 

On February 1974, Samsung launched Korea’s first frost-free refrigerator and in May, air conditioners. In addition, Samsung developed 8-track compact stereo to widen their business. Later on, Samsung started to produce record cassettes and AM/FM radio-cassettes for domestic customers as well as export to the United States. Furthermore, Samsung expected that there would be increasing number of people who would want to buy washing machines in near future, so they decided to develop their own washing machine. Thus, from December 1974 Samsung began production of pulsator type 2KG manual washing machines. 

In addition to refrigerators, air conditioners, cassettes and washers, Samsung succeeded in developing fans, electric stoves, electric rice cookers and more. Also by April 1974, Samsung began production of electric desk calculators for the first time in Korea. 

Next week we’ll talk about Samsung Electronics' introduction of energy efficient products and increasing sales and productions.