Samsung Press Release

Samsung announces agreement with Pentax to co-operate and jointly develop new digital camera products. This will broaden the product range to offer consumers greater choice

Seoul, Korea - October 12th, 2005: Samsung (CEO Lee Joong-Koo, www.samsungcamera.com) announces an agreement with Pentax to jointly develop Digital-SLR cameras.

The partnership between Samsung and Pentax will be based on sharing their respective competencies to enhance competitiveness in digital cameras.

Samsung holds superb digital image processing technologies, digital convergence technologies and world-wide brand recognition in digital appliance markets. Its partner, Pentax, has developed SLR cameras using Penta Prism technology. Pentax possesses a wide range of high-performance interchangeable lenses as well as cutting edge technologies for high precision cameras.

It is estimated that the world-wide digital camera market will continue its growth with unit sales of 82 million for 2005 and 89 million for 2006. The digital SLR market growth rate will exceed the overall digital camera growth rate with over 4 million unit sales for this year and over 5 million unit sales for 2006.

Samsung announced its vision of “becoming a top-class Digital Camera manufacturer” in May 2005. Since then, Samsung has seen strong success and rapid sales growth through the launch of innovative products and strong marketing.

Samsung has the No. 1 market share in Korea with a share of around 30%. Globally, Samsung is one of the fastest growing brands in digital cameras.  Market share has doubled in the last year and this growth is set to continue.

Most recently, the Samsung Pro815, an advanced °ƒAll in One°± digital camera, has generated massive interest.  The Pro815 will provide the ideal platform for expansion into solutions for enthusiast and advanced photographers.