Samsung co-CEO dismisses TV competitors
Despite the tough market, Samsung says it has high expectations for its new premium ultra-high-def TVs and its new Tizen smart TVs.
LAS VEGAS -- Boo-keun Yoon, Samsung's co-CEO and head of consumer electronics, says his company doesn't need to look far to find its chief rival in the TV market.
"Our biggest competitor is ourselves, and my biggest worry is that we will become vain," he told reporters on the sidelines of CES 2015 here.
Samsung used the trade show to unveil several updates to its TV line, which is faring far better than its wilting smartphone unit at the moment.
Samsung announced this week that all of its new smart TVs will run Tizen, an operating system that's been under development for years. The software is expected to simplify the user interface compared with earlier Samsung smart TVs and let people more easily connect their TV to nearby Samsung smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.
The company also unveiled quantum dot TVs as its SUHD series . The "S" in SUHD will denote Samsung's premium products, while budget models will be launched without the "S" and be called UHD TVs or Full HD TVs, noted Kim Hyun-suk, Samsung's TV boss.
Yoon said he was unimpressed with rivals' efforts at CES, such as Chinese electronic giant TCL's 110-inch curved TV or Japanese titan Sony's full lineup for 2015.
"We are No. 1 for the ninth straight year," Yoon said of the TV business. "So instead of focusing on what others might come out with, we focus on what we make."
During Yoon's keynote speech at CES this week, he offered Samsung's vision of the Internet of Things -- the concept that Net connection will soon be coming to massive numbers of products beyond computers, tablets and phones.
Samsung wants Tizen TV to become the "hub" of smart, connected homes.
"What is important for Tizen is how the OS operates based on consumers' wants...how the OS...can communicate with any other OS. Communication between devices is crucial. This is our final goal," said Yoon.
