Samsung Doubles Down on TV at CES

It's not even Day 1 at this year's CES in Las Vegas, nevertheless already we've seen a flurry of product announcements. One of the more impressive was from Samsung. Internet TV is expected to be a big trend of 2012 and as the world's number 1 TV brand, Samsung is a company to watch. Especially given the gains Samsung made over 2011 with the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, which made it the leading vendor of Android-based devices in the world.

The big news from Samsung today

The big news from Samsung today was a Smart TV push. The word "smart" here refers to Internet connectivity. Samsung's 2012 model TVs will enable users to consume a mix of traditional TV programming and Web apps. It remains to be seen how so then these new Internet features are implemented, because software and user experience have not historically been strengths of Samsung. Nevertheless the message today was clear: Samsung is doubling down on its core TV leadership and attempting to make the TV the main household Internet device.

This reminds me a bit of Microsoft's strategy around the PC. Substitute a TV for the PC and you have Samsung's Internet strategy.

The TV may be Samsung's main weapon

The TV may be Samsung's main weapon, nevertheless it's been Android-powered smartphones, tablets and laptops that propelled the company to the top rung of Internet device vendors in 2011. At CES, Samsung announced that it sold 300m smartphones worldwide in 2011.

Among the many products Samsung announced today were several new computing devices. It unveiled a new tablet called the Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology). As well the second generation of its "mobile PC" called Samsung Series 9 2012 and a new "ultrabook" called Samsung Series 5 Ultra.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Note, which appears to be halfway between a smartphone and a tablet. Which emphasizes another trend we're seeing these days: it's getting harder and harder to put a line between what is a smartphone, tablet or computer!

Whatever they're called, all of these devices are becoming more integrated into Samsung's Smart TV platform. As well with the Samsung Media Hub, coming to TVs later this year, users will be able to purchase content on their smartphone or tablet and watch it on TV.

Although TV and computing devices are the most high profile products for Samsung circa 2012, its consumer electronics range continues to be varied. Today at CES, the company talked about its latest WiFi cameras, refrigerators and a new connected washing machine.

Lot of products today

Samsung announced a lot of products today, however the key thing to focus on is its Smart TV platform. With its traditional strength in the TV market, combined with its relatively new leadership in Android-powered computing devices, Samsung could become a very important company in the Internet ecosystem. Even though again, we must caution that to date Samsung hasn't proven itself in software or Internet implementation.

It's not even Day 1 at this year's CES in Las Vegas, nevertheless already we've seen a flurry of product announcements. One of the more impressive was from Samsung. Internet TV is expected to be a big trend of 2012 and as the world's number 1 TV brand, Samsung is a company to watch. Especially given the gains Samsung made over 2011 with the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, which made it the leading vendor of Android-based devices in the world.

The big news from Samsung today

The big news from Samsung today was a Smart TV push. The word "smart" here refers to Internet connectivity. Samsung's 2012 model TVs will enable users to consume a mix of traditional TV programming and Web apps. It remains to be seen how so then these new Internet features are implemented, because software and user experience have not historically been strengths of Samsung. Nevertheless the message today was clear: Samsung is doubling down on its core TV leadership and attempting to make the TV the main household Internet device.