Samsung Australia is set to try and turn around a slump in TV margins with the Company tipped to launch a premium Smart TV range that will include new models with built in processors that are normally found in a smartphone. The new top end model will cost over $4,300 to purchase in Australia.The looming TV battle between LG and Samsung is set to kick off in late April with both Korean Companies looking to outdo each other with new Smart TV apps, which will include from Samsung access to the Blockbuster range of movies, as well as new hardware such as the LG voice activated remote control.
At the top end of the Samsung line up is ultra slim 60″ ES8000 LED TV which is packed with new capabilities including a fast quad core processor, It will be available shortly with an April/May launch tipped for Australia. This TV is expected to sell for between $4,300 and $5,000.
Samsung will also launch a new audio line up which includes the brand’s first table top docking speakers and the brand’s first HTiBs with Samsung AllShare Play networking, Ultraviolet-based “disc-to-digital” content-sharing technology, and web browser.
A new Samsung ES7500 Smart TV, which will be available in a 60-inch model as well as 55″, 50″ and 46-inch model, is expected to sell for around $3,999 for the 60″ model according to sources.
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Samsung ES6600 and ES6500 TV’s will also go on sale before May 2012, with prices starting at $999.99 for the 32-inch ES6500 model (although the release date for this one is yet to be announced.)
In an effort to lift margins Samsung has moved to offer products in the fast growing tablet and smartphone attach market. They will also launch a sound bar which will be available in two colours. Owners will be able to split the bar to create two separate speakers for placement on both sides of a TV.
Panasonic has a similar model device. It is not known whether Samsung will launch the device in the first half of the year or the second.
Also being launched are new 3D Blu-ray-equipped HTiBs, two models.
A US press release claims that in the HTiBs, the disc-to-digital technology will be available exclusively to Samsung for a limited period, enabling select Blu-ray players and Blu-ray-equipped HTiBs to authenticate that a DVD disc has been purchased, not rented.
If the disc is purchased, users will be able to stream a cloud-based Ultraviolet-protected version of the title in SD or HD to any Wi-Fi-equipped tablet, smartphone, TV, or Blu-ray player equipped with a Flixster app.
It is not known whether the Australian versions will have the same technology.
More than 80 percent of DVD titles available can be streamed under the disc-to-digital program, Samsung recently said.
Disc-to-digital technology will eventually be rolled out to enable Blu-ray disc authentication.
Samsung’s other new networking technology, AllShare Play, is an enhanced version of Samsung’s DLNA-based AllShare technology, which lets users stream audio and video content to an AllShare-enabled HTiB, TV or Blu-ray player from DLNA devices in the house.
AllShare Play adds the ability for enabled devices in the home to view pictures and unprotected video stored on mobile AllShare Play devices located outside the house. Pictures and videos snapped by Samsung tablets, smartphones, and Wi-Fi-equipped digital cameras, for example, can be sent to the cloud for storage and streamed to select AllShare Play PCs, TVs, HTiBs, and Blu-ray players in the home. Samsung provides 5GB of free cloud-based storage for the devices.
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Among the new Samsung audio range is a horn-shaped DA-E550 and rectangular DA-E570, both are expected to sell for around $299 with embedded iPod/iPhone connector, 2×5-watt amplification, separate embedded USB charging connector which is designed to charge a Samsung mobile devices, stereo Bluetooth to stream music from the Samsung mobile devices and from other mobile devices such as an iPhone.
The DA-E650 adds iPad charging, embedded subwoofer, and embedded MP3, WMA and AAC decoders to decode music from USB-connected mass-storage devices. Amplification is rated at 2×10 watts plus 1×20 watts.
Samsung Australia is not saying which of their new audio line up will be launched in the first half.
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