Australians on average change their TV every five years claims the head of Samsung Australia’s TV division, this he says presents an opportunity for all those who purchased a plasma or early generation Full HD TV to step up into a new world of curved TV’s and 4K display technology.
Phil Newton the Vice President of Home Entertainment at Samsung Australia said that Samsung leads the world in the development of Curved TV technology. “Consumers only have to compare a curved TV with a flat panel TV to notice the difference,” he told ChannelNews.
He said that the combination of Curved TV technology and a new generation of Smart TV apps is delivering a “whole new experience” for consumers.
Among the new Samsung TV’s now hitting retailers are five curved TV models of which three will be Ultra High Definition and two models will be Full HD 1080p.
Consumers will be able to choose from a 55-inch to 78-inch model for the UHD, and 48-inch to 65-inch for 1080p.
Newton said that the curved screens “created a more natural and more immersive experience while delivering a better TV experience”.
Missing from the Samsung lineup are OLED TV’s which arch rival LG is set to roll out next week.
The basic technology behind a Samsung curved TV is based on a circle with 4200mm radius. This is similar to the Samsung Curved OLED TV, which was based on a radius of 4176mm.
Newton said the introduction of new TV technology is a better viewing experience and new smart TV apps will stimulate the TV market that has been in decline.
He admitted that during the past few months there has been weeks when retailers have struggled to get stock of Samsung TV’s.
When asked about the emergence of Chinese brands into the Ultra High Definition market Newton said, “You get what you pay for. We are concentrating on premium quality TV’s”.
He said that Samsung was looking for growth this year in Australia and that he believed the large TV display market will grow but he did not elaborate as to how much.
While Samsung is not starting a price war the Korean Company has come in with pricing that is considerable cheaper than what some analysts were tipping.
The 78-inch curved UHD HU9000 which was tipped to have a retail price tag of $20,000 has a RRP of AU$16,999. The 65″ model will be on sale for $6999.
On the question of 4K content Newton said that more Australians than ever before are moving to IP based or downloaded content and that 4K content is coming.
He said that when Blu ray was launched there was only 9 titles in 2006 and by 2008 there were 2500 titles available.
“The same is happening with 4K” he said.
Newton said that all of the new Samsung models had upscaling.
“We’ve got quad core plus processors these are twice as powerful as last year – and they do an amazing job of upscaling content to Ultra HD resolution.”
As tipped by ChannelNews three weeks ago Samsung is also launching a powerful new range of wireless audio gear that will take on Sonos in the home.
