Several years ago, Sony, Sharp and Panasonic were the first companies to market flat-panel televisions. But they obsessed over craftsmanship or held onto the old cathode-ray tube while dithering over the rival flat-panel technologies of plasma screen and liquid crystal displays, or LCDs.

Samsung placed billion-dollar bets on mass production of television-size LCDs. Its economies of scale helped it drive down prices to create, then clinch, the LCD television market.

Five years ago, Sony was the first company to make what is widely seen as the next-generation television. It featured the OLED display — organic light-emitting diode — which is thinner, more vivid and more energy-efficient. Sony was never able to mass-produce or market it; it was too expensive. Samsung and its domestic rival, LG Electronics, tiptoed in, building mass-production capabilities by first making smaller OLEDs for high-end smartphones. Then last week they pounced, announcing the marketing of 55-inch OLED televisions.

“Koreans do things quicker than almost anyone,” said Anthony Michell, author of “Samsung Electronics and the Struggle for Leadership of the Electronics Industry.” “This allows them to change models, go from design to production faster than anyone at the present time. Korean companies continually set themselves challenges, like the challenge to overtake Sony in terms of brand value in the past.”

Samsung Electronics is the flagship of Samsung Group, a family conglomerate that controls more than 80 companies that build oil tankers and apartment complexes, run hotels and amusement parks and sell insurance to housewives and artillery pieces to the military. The flagship’s operations are often faulted for their opacity. But analysts say that also allows Samsung to place huge bets and do so quickly.

Samsung makes not only hardware but also its components; it is Apple’s biggest parts supplier and its fiercest competitor in the completed smartphone market. In a way, its rivals help Samsung compete with them. Samsung’s handset business was its growth driver, raking in 20.5 trillion won ($18 billion) in the second quarter.