Since the “4K” or “ultra-high definition” technology began to be implemented in TVs a few months back in 2011, all major manufacturers had begun working on it and with the CES 2012 coming up, it seems like LG is ready to unveil theirs. They have already announced that this new 84-inch 3D TV will have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 along with all the trademark LG Smart TV and 3D TV features like “Cinema 3D” and an app store that has more than a thousand applications to engage the consumers. Another feature which has attracted a lot of attention towards this television set is the “voice-controlled magic remote”. It has already become quite popular that Apple might be releasing a “siri” controlled iTV soon, but LG seems to have cashed in on the voice-controlled TV tech ahead of Apple. How well this works is however, something that we will just have to wait and find out.
It was heard straight from the horse’s mouth when an executive at Sharp‘s US division said that they are not at all worried about their sales in the United States and the iTV is not something they are concerned about either. Kozo Takahashi even accepted their indifference in the matter when he said “I really have no idea what kind of TV it will be. But if he came up with it, I’m sure it will be amazing.” He also added “… but currently it’s not something we’re studying very hard,”
In addition to revealing their strategy to non-strategize for the upcoming Apple television sets that have had the rest of the industry worried, he also mentioned Sharp’s big plans in regards to sales in the US. On being asked about whether the rumors about Apple working with Sharp to bring about their TV sets to the market are true, he chose to stay unresponsive. Sharp is going for a different kind of approach for selling its big screen TVs now, an example of their strategy is their ad campaign that terms the 80-inch TV as “Touchdownormous” in reference to the forthcoming Super Bowl Sunday. Ambitions and achievements of the company were made clear when Takahashi said that the sales of large screen TVs (60-inch and above) in the US will in all likelihood cross Sharp’s initial target of 1 million by the end of March. Sharp strongly believes that the US consumers are not as interested in technology as they are in functionality and cost-effectiveness; it is for that reason Sharp has chosen to continue manufacturing high quality large screen flat panels without any great innovations at the moment.
After transforming and simplifying the personal computer, the cellular phone and tablet computers, it looks like Apple is all set to transform the television in its own vision as well. Sources report that Jeff Robbin, one of the key figures behind the iPod is leading the team that Apple has assigned to develop their TV designs. Rumor has it that a prototype is going to be on display in 2012 and if things go as planned, then some even expect Apple TVs to hit stores by 2013!
As it had always been before his unfortunate death last month, the idea of an Apple TV set was also the brainchild of Steve Jobs primarily. He has himself mentioned that “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” What this would mean for the consumers and the market is something that we will simply have to wait and see, but stiff competition from established television giants such Samsung, LG, Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba and Vizio are definitely on the cards.
