Samsung Unveils ‘New Normal’ of Tech Innovation at 2022 CES
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today unveiled its vision for the future, “Together for tomorrow,” during a pre-show keynote event at CES 2022. Keynote speaker Jong-Hee (JH) Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of DX (Device eXperience) Division at Samsung, highlighted the company’s efforts to usher in a new age of togetherness, with customizable experiences that reflect consumers’ evolving lifestyles, and innovations that mark progress for both society and the planet.
The company’s “Together for tomorrow” vision is one that empowers everyone to create positive change and drives collaborations that address some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. The keynote illustrated how Samsung plans to make its vision a reality by introducing a range of sustainability initiatives, purposeful partnerships, and customizable and connected technologies.
“I’m excited for you to be a part of our vision to see how innovation can create positive change, [and] to join us and work together for tomorrow,” said Han. ”These developments will make sustainability part of your product experience, enabling you to live a more sustainable life.”
Building a Sustainable Future
At its core, Samsung’s vision for the future is built on what the company calls “everyday sustainability.” It is a concept that inspires Samsung to put sustainability at the heart of everything it does. The company has been realizing its vision by adopting new, low-impact product manufacturing practices, footprint-reducing packaging and a more sustainable customer experience, and by responsibly disposing of products at the end of their lifecycles.
Samsung’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions throughout the production cycle have also earned recognition from the Carbon Trust, the world’s leading authority on carbon footprint. Last year, the company’s Carbon Trust-certified memory chips helped reduce carbon emissions by nearly 700,000 tons.
Samsung’s efforts in this area extend well beyond semiconductors and include expanding the use of recycled materials. To introduce everyday sustainability to more products, Samsung’s Visual Display Business plans to use 30 times more recycled plastics than it did in 2021. The company also revealed plans to expand its use of recycled materials to include all mobile products and home appliances over the next three years.
In 2021, all of Samsung’s TV boxes included recycled materials. For this year, the company revealed that it will be expanding the use of recycled materials to include the boxes’ interior packaging as well. Now, recycled materials will be incorporated into Styrofoam, box holders and plastic bags. The company also announced the global expansion of its award-winning Eco-Packaging program. The expansion of the program, which transforms cardboard boxes into cat houses, side tables, and other useful furniture items, will include packaging for home appliances such as vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, air purifiers and more.
Samsung is also building sustainability into the ways that customers experience its products. Such experiences will be integral to empowering people to reduce their carbon footprint and make positive changes together for a better tomorrow. As an example, the company introduced notable enhancements to its first-of-its-kind SolarCell Remote, which eliminates battery waste with a built-in solar panel that can be charged during both day and night.
The enhanced SolarCell Remote gets electricity from radio frequencies in devices like Wi-Fi routers[1]. “What’s more, it will be included in more Samsung products – like new Samsung TVs and home appliances – with the goal of eliminating more than 200 million batteries from landfills[2]. When you line them up, it is the distance from right here, Las Vegas, to Korea,” said Han.
In addition, by 2025, Samsung plans to make all of its TVs and phone chargers operate on near zero standby power, so that the products will consume almost no energy when not being used.
E-waste is another big challenge for the electronics industry, which is why Samsung has collected more than five million tons of e-waste since 2009. For mobile products, last year, Samsung launched Galaxy for the Planet, a sustainability platform that was created to bring about tangible climate action and minimize devices’ environmental footprints throughout their lifecycles.
“These are important steps,” said Han, “but we cannot achieve our goals alone. We believe open innovation and collaboration are keys to fighting climate change and protecting our environment.” With this in mind, Samsung announced that its eco-conscious technologies like the SolarCell Remote will be made open source, so that others can utilize them for their new devices too.
Samsung’s decision to make such technologies openly available reflects a commitment to innovation – and to everyday sustainability – that transcends industries. The collaboration with Patagonia that Samsung announced at the keynote demonstrates the type of innovation that can result when companies – even those from entirely different industries – come together to address environmental issues. The innovative solution that the companies are designing will help fight plastic pollution by enabling Samsung washing machines to minimize microplastics from entering waterways through laundry cycles.
“This is a serious problem, and not one we can solve on our own,” said Vincent Stanley, Director of Philosophy at Patagonia. Commending the hard work and dedication of Samsung engineers, Stanley described the working relationship as “a perfect example of the kind of collaboration we all need to help turn the tide of climate change and restore nature to health.”
“We are thrilled about this collaboration, but our work won’t stop there,” added Han. “We will continue to explore new partnerships and collaborations, aiming to address the challenges facing our planet.”
Empowering Users with Customized Experiences
In addition to describing steps it is taking to advance everyday sustainability, Samsung outlined various ways it is advancing technology to cater to consumers’ diverse needs. Understanding that each person is unique and wants to customize their devices to suit their lifestyle, Samsung strives to find ways to help people redefine their relationships with everyday technologies. This people-first approach to innovation is a key pillar of the company’s “Together for tomorrow” vision.
The platforms and screens that Samsung unveiled at the event reflect the ‘Screens Everywhere, Screens for All’ era that Han alluded to at CES 2020. The Freestyle is a lightweight and portable screen that gives you a cinema-quality experience no matter where you are. Featuring AI-enabled sound, built-in streaming apps and a host of useful Smart TV accessibility features, The Freestyle can be set up virtually anywhere and projects up to 100 inches.
The Samsung Gaming Hub, meanwhile, offers an all-in-one platform for discovering and playing cloud and console games, and is set to launch on the company’s 2022 Smart TVs and monitors. Lastly, The Odyssey Ark is a 55-inch, flexible and curved gaming screen that takes immersion to the next level with a multi-view experience that allows users to play games, video chat with friends, and watch gaming videos at the same time
To introduce more tailored product experiences to consumers’ homes, Samsung announced the rollout of even more customization options for its Bespoke lineup of home appliances. This includes new Bespoke options for Samsung’s Family Hub and French 3-Door and 4-Door refrigerators, alongside dishwashers, ranges, and over-the-range microwaves. Samsung is also introducing new products like the Bespoke Jet™ vacuum and Bespoke Washer and Dryer, expanding the lineup to every room in the home to offer consumers more ways to customize their space to suit their style and needs.
Samsung is constantly exploring ways to harness customization to help users get more out of their devices. The #YouMake Project represents the culmination of those efforts empowering consumers to choose and customize products based on what matters most to them, so they can enjoy a more personalized experience across their devices. Announced at the keynote, the initiative expands Samsung’s Bespoke vision beyond home appliances and brings it to life in the company’s smartphones and large-screen devices.
Ushering in an Era of Seamless Connectivity
Building a better future together for tomorrow requires more than building customization and sustainability into the core of Samsung’s products—it also requires seamless connectivity. During the keynote, Samsung demonstrated its commitment to ushering in an era of truly seamless connected experiences by highlighting its collaborations with partners as well as its next-gen products.
Unveiled for the first time at CES, the all-new Samsung Home Hub takes connected home experiences to the next level with a SmartThings service that integrates with AI-connected appliances to simplify home management. Samsung Home Hub combines six SmartThings services into one convenient device that gives users complete control over their smart home and makes it easier to manage household chores.
To enable different types of smart devices to work better with each other, Samsung announced plans to make SmartThings Hub a built-in feature of its 2022 TVs, Smart Monitors and Family Hub refrigerators. Doing so will help make connected living experiences more accessible and seamless for everyone.
Pointing to the need to offer consumers the best smart home experience regardless of brand, Samsung also announced its role as a founding member of the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA), which brings together various smart home appliance manufacturers. The organization aims to foster greater interoperability between devices across brands to give consumers more choice, and to enhance the security and safety of products and services.
“As a global coalition of smart home appliance manufacturers, HCA members share a belief that connected ecosystems and digital technology will allow us to further develop product experiences that are elegant, hyper-personalized, and truly smart for our consumers,” said Katherine Shin, Vice President of Customer Experience at Trane Technologies. “The HCA invites any global manufacturers with a similar vision for efficiency, interoperability and innovation to come and build with us.”
Samsung’s keynote underlined a deep commitment to corporate social responsibility that continues to characterize its approach to innovation. That commitment is not only realized in the company’s technologies, but also in its dedication towards programs that empower the next generation to bring about the changes they want to see in the world. By nurturing young people’s development and building skills for the workplaces of tomorrow, programs like Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung Innovation Campus are turning dreams into action.
“Today, I’m honored to share that Samsung’s programs to empower the next generation have now reached more than 21 million people since 2012,” said Han. “This is the better tomorrow we all seek: enabling people to reach beyond their dreams, a planet protected so others can experience its wonders, [and] innovation as the spark for change.”
For more information, including images and videos of the products Samsung is announcing at CES 2022, please visit news.samsung.com/global/ces-2022.
[1] For radio frequency harvesting, a physical proximity of SolarCell Remote to a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi router is required.
[2] Estimate is based on expected sales volume and average usage period of related products.
About the Author
Andrew Bistak When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.
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