JoongAng Daily. June 26, 2004
By Wohn Dong-hee

Samsung Electronics took first place at an international design competition after five of its products won awards.
The Korean electronics giant said yesterday that it received the largest number of prizes this year at the IDEA 2004 design competition, which was hosted by the Industrial Designers Society of America, as well as the largest number of prizes over the last five years.
It tied with Apple Computer Inc. for first place with 19 products that received awards in the past five years.
BusinessWeek magazine featured Samsung in its July 5 issue, noting that the company had become the first Asian firm to take top place in the 25-year history of IDEA.

Among the award-winning products, Samsung’s 17-inch liquid crystal display monitor SyncMaster 173P and portable circular printer won the gold medal. Its 50-inch DLP projection television sets SVP-50 and 56L7, and microwave oven won silvers, and ‘Samsung Smart Screen,’ a desktop wallpaper that organizes icons, won a bronze.
In particular, the 17-inch LCD monitor SyncMaster has a unique design: it can be folded flat, while the ports that link the cables are hidden in the back. Samsung said that the monitor won awards at international design competitions ‘iF Design Awards’ and ‘Red Dot Design Awards’ as well.
“Aside from an artistic perspective, the designs cut down a lot of our costs as well. The monitors are very lightweight and, when folded, take up so little space that it is very handy when making large export shipments or [shipping domestically],” a Samsung public relations official said.