Samsung holds South East Asia Forum
Samsung's latest
SMART TV
Samsung’s latest
camera in the market - WB150F.
Ariel Arias, Head
of Audiovisual, Samsung Philippines, sharing with the guests the interesting
features of the new Samsung SMART TV.
Last month we ran a quick roundup of the Samsung Southeast
Asia Forum held way back in March. This time around we're taking a closer look
at the event and laying out what really happened in Bangkok.
This kind of shindig usually starts out with a keynote
speech by the people Samsung considers to be both important and well-versed in
their divisions. This was no exception with Ariel Arias, Head of Audio and
Video of Samsung Philippines, taking the stage to kick things off with the introduction
of their newest line of smart TVs. They showed off the shiny new ES8000 on
stage; with its 75-inch screen, ridiculously thin bezel and a display quality
that you can shave with, it was a little hard to pay attention to the speech.
This new generation of state-of-the-art televisions will feature the Samsungs
three guiding philosophies of Smart Interaction, Smart Content and Smart
Evolution.
Smart Interaction
Smart Interaction is Samsung's attempt
to bring us to the 21st century with voice and motion controls. It sounded a
little odd at first to address the TV with "Hi TV", but apparently
that's the only command it has to activate voice commands. If Samsung comes up
with a way to modify the commands (or issue a special Star Trek version) they'll
have a winner on their hands.
Samsung ES8000
Voice commands aren't the only thing that Smart Interaction
can do. Motion controls are also included in the ES8000, and its sibling: the
ES7500. It's a great feature, but probably won't see as much use as the voice
commands.
Smart Content
All the interaction possibilities don't mean anything if
there's nothing to interact with, and that's where Samsung's Smart Content
comes in. Naturally, Samsung announced that Angry Birds would be coming to the
Samsung Smart TV when it launches; this comes at no surprise since everyone
announces that they have the aggravated avians on their platform (not to say
that it's a bad thing). Other content will be available for download via
Samsung's own app store.
The Samsung Smart
TV 2012
The big highlight for Smart Content is how Samsung is buying
into the four screens concept and tying your gadgets together via the AllShare
Play service. It bears similarities to a cloud storage service but can also
access files stored on your other Samsung devices, provided that you remembered
to leave them connected to the Internet, of course.
As part of the big Smart Content push, Samsung also
announced a partnership with webstreaming service Viki. Users will gain access
to over 15,000 shows on-demand which can be translated into some 30 languages.
The highlights of which Samsung is expecting to be the inexplicably popular
Korean dramas.
Smart Evolution
Samsung understands that people don't
want to change their TVs every year to keep up with advancing times. As a means
to keep up with Moore's law, they have decided to go where no other TV has gone
before by making their Smart TVs upgradeable. The plan is to release a new
upgrade kit, called an Evolution Kit, every year which will include all necessary
hardware and software enhancements. While it took a while to explain, it looks
like the Evolution Kit will be a block that sticks on to the back of the Smart
TV and becomes the new processor or whatever it is that needs upgrading. It's
an intriguing idea, but time will tell if it really catches on.
Malaysian Market
Director of Marketing Samsung Malaysia, Jimmy Tan believes
that the three guiding philosphies are a true differentiator for Samsung in the
Smart TV market. He says, "We have big plans for Malaysia.
Director of
Marketing Samsung Malaysia, Jimmy Tan (left)
We will reach out to our customers and let them really
experience our products, because it's just too difficult to communicate without
real experience in the store front. So we're going to select key stores that
have the right target segment and put in the retail infrastructure for our
customers to experience our Smart TVs."
There will also be a push to help customers who buy their
Smart TVs understand the capabilities that Samsung has crammed into these
devices. This push will come mainly from retail stores, but will also be
supported by online information.
