Samsung Hits the Vending Machine for Profit

LCDs are already found in TVs, notebook computers and cell phones, and are now making their way onto the walls of buildings, according to Scott Birnbaum, vice president of Samsung's LCD wing.

"One of the things that you're seeing now is digital advertising -- you go inside of airports or train stations, and where you saw a poster in the past, now you're seeing digital advertising," he told TheStreet.com, . "It gives you the opportunity to take a message that couldn't change and change the messaging in real-time."

Birnbaum explained that media companies can now put multiple advertisers on an advertising space previously occupied by just one. Transit authorities can also use network-connected LCD panels for emergency messaging, he added.

Signs displaying video advertisements have become much more common in the last few years, although the Samsung executive says that most of these are LED-based, and lack the high-definition picture quality of LCDs.

"We haven't scratched the surface of where the potential is for this," said Birnbaum. "How many hundreds of millions of paper posters are out there today, or walls or sides of buildings [that] could use this LCD technology?"

Samsung has good reasons for seeking out new revenue streams, particularly in an unforgiving economy. The electronics giant saw its first-quarter profit plunge 72% earlier this year, amid slumping demand for memory chips.

The LCD market is also growing rapidly, according to technology analyst firm iSuppli, which estimates that 4.1 million panels will be sold this year, compared to 2.2 million in 2008. This figure, however, is expected to reach 29 million units by 2013.