South Korea's top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. began sales of its first Tizen-powered TV on Thursday in its home market, the first step in the company's strategy to connect all its consumer electronics to the operating system.
The newly launched models are curved SUHD TVs, the latest version of the high-end product that touts a far brighter display compared to traditional Ultra HD or organic light-emitting diode screens. The company said an SUHD TV can display over 1 billion colors, 64 times more than the existing models.
Samsung released it in four sizes -- 88, 78, 65, and 55 inches. The price tag on the 55-inch version is 5.49 million won ($5,038).
Samsung's UHD TVs were first showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month and caught eyes with their quantum-dot technology that uses a semiconductor nanostructure to improve brightness, visibility and power efficiency of the displays.
The technology, which Samsung refers to as "nanocrystal technology," does not use cadmium, which is cited as an environmental concern.
The SUHD lineup is expected to be launched in the U.S., Europe and other major markets in the near future, but Samsung did not provide details.
"Currently, high-end models take up 10 percent of our combined shipment of TVs, which accounts for around 25 to 30 percent in revenue," said Kim Hyun-suk, who heads Samsung's display division. "We expect the SUHD lineup will be similar to that."
With Samsung planning to sell around 60 million TVs in 2015, the estimated sales of SUHD models are expected to reach 6 million units.
"Although we expect foreign-exchange fluctuations will affect performances this year, we will make efforts to bolster revenue and profits on the back of the premium-level products," Kim added.
The company has said it will continue to promote the Tizen operating system by eventually applying it to all other consumer electronics for a fully connected platform.
Tizen is an open-source operating system for smart devices, promoted by Samsung, Intel, Huawei and other global tech players. Samsung has been playing a leading role in its development, also launching the first Tizen-powered smartphone in India last month.
The Samsung Z1 is powered by a Spreadtrum SC7727S chipset containing 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and Mali 400 GPU. The smartphone sports a 4-inch WVGA display, and runs Tizen OS 2.3.
The budget-minded Z1 comes with 768MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory (expandable up to 64GB via microSD). It has a 3.1-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front-facing snaper, and packs in a 1500mAh battery. Other features include dual SIM support, as well as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 3G connectivity.
On the software side, the smartphone features built-in AntiVirus protection, an Ultra Power Saving Mode to extend the battery life, and free access to Hungama music for three months, as well as premium content though Club Samsung. It also lets you send SOS alerts, something which can be done by pressing the power button four times.
Reliance and Aircel users will also get 500MB of free 3G data per month for a period of 6 months with the device.
The device has been launched with a price tag of INR 5,700 ($92). It is the company’s first Tizen OS-based smartphone in the country, and is available in White, Black, and Wine Red colour options.
