Senior Telstra executives as well as the Executive Chairman of Google have been in Korea this month to meet with senior executives of both Samsung and LGs TV divisions.Ben Kinealy, Director of IPTV, Pay TV and T Box services, at Telstra arrived in Korea on Monday in an effort to further expand Telstra’s technology relationship with the two Korean TV manufacturers who are also being wooed by the Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, in the hope that both Samsung and LG will support the new Google TV offering in 2012.
Kinealy told SmartHouse last week that Korean engineers were impressed by Telstra’s new TV content app, that delivers movies and free to air TV without the need for a set top box and that both LG and Samsung were looking at new ways to integrate the app into future TVs sold in Australia.
Earlier this month LG confirmed that they will show a new LG Smart TV at CES 2012 that runs Google TV. Now Google is trying to convince Samsung to also support the Google platform which could be a major competitor to the Telstra TV service.
Samsung is hoping that the inclusion of software, like the Telstra TV app and Google TV, will help the company boost its profit and fend off price erosion in the TV market.
SmartHouse suspects that Telstra is looking to expand their application so that consumers can check email and log onto social networks via a TV, similar to what they can do via a smartphone or notebook.
Yoon Boo-Keun, president of Samsung’s visual-display division, said that a Google TV will not be unveiled during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Mr. Yoon didn’t give a reason. Typically every year, major consumer-electronics companies introduce their product pipeline during the show.
Unlike Telstra Google has had limited success with their Google TV offering.
Last year, the search company partnered with Sony and Logitech to launch a TV that lets users access the Internet and search for live television listings, but the device’s high price and complicated interface hurt sales with both companies dumping the Google TV offering.
Since launching their content software on the T Box Telstra has signed up over 200,000 consumers who now download on average 4 movies a month to their TV.
