Lenovo K91 Smart TVs Launch In China

By Yuntao Huang and Lee Chyen Yee

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - What a difference nearly 50 years makes. Although the exact origins are lost to time, it was around 1965 that the phrases "boob tube" and "idiot box" were coined to describe the small cathode-ray tube television and the content broadcast on it that many thought foolish.

Fast-forward to 2012 and it's the era of the "smart TV," a slim and stylish - and large - LED flatscreen model connected to the Internet that allows viewers to download movies, play video games and Skype their relatives around the world.

Smart TVs are also the latest battleground for technology giants like Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Lenovo Group Ltd, each of which is trying to capture the eyeballs and wallets of consumers hungry for content displayed in the comfort of their home in 3D on a high-definition screen.

The latest entry in the market was unveiled in Beijing by Lenovo on Tuesday, where the world's second-largest PC maker showcased its 55-inch K91 smart TVs to attendees who were reading Sina microblogs, playing simulated tennis and watching the movie "Inception" on demo models.

While relatively established in other parts of the world, smart TVs have been slow to catch on in China because of restrictions on content and the concept itself is relatively new.

The K-series is Lenovo's first smart TV and the company decided to launch it on its home turf because it said it would be easier to negotiate content deals in China.

"We been very busy this spring sowing seeds for the future," Lenovo's CEO and chairman, Yang Yuanqing, said during the launch. "Lenovo not only wants to be a leading PC vendor, it also wants to be a global leader in providing Internet consumer devices."

Lenovo may have to play catch-up in the rest of the world as tech heavyweights Samsung and Apple power ahead with their own offerings. Another Korean firm, LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 TV maker, plans to launch Internet-enabled TV based on Google's platform in the United States in May.

"Whatever Apple does, it sets the trend for some other PC makers," said Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Securities in Taipei. "For Lenovo, the smart TV is a good strategy for it to consolidate its market share in China. However, content will be the biggest obstacle for Lenovo's smart TVs to be sold outside of China."

DIVERSIFICATION

Lenovo, which has been diversifying into making its Lephone smartphones and Lepad tablet PCs, derived more than 40 percent of its total nine-month sales of $22 billion in 2011 from China.

Analysts said Lenovo had been dominant in the traditional PC sector, but its foray into smartphones, tablet PCs and now smart TVs, has not been as successful.

The launch of its smart TVs will unlikely have an immediate boost on Lenovo's earnings in coming quarters since it is only being sold in China. By 2015, smart TVs will make up about half of total TVs shipped globally, Lenovo executives said.

Lenovo's smart TV, which comes in four models with prices ranging from 6,499 yuan ($1,032) to 14,999 yuan, uses a Qualcomm Inc processor and runs Google Inc's Android 4.0 operating system.

Lenovo plans to start selling its smart TV this month at electronics retailer Suning stores in nine cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The company is already selling a console that could be paired with the new smart TV. The company's Eedoo unit in April launched the CT510 console that will compete with Microsoft Inc's XBox Kinect and Sony Corp's Playstation.

However, Lenovo said its CT510 device is primarily an exercise and entertainment device since sales of so-called gaming consoles are banned in China.

Lenovo's shares fell 4.2 percent on Tuesday, underperforming the main Hang Seng Index's 0.4 percent loss.

(Reporting by Huang Yuntao in BEIJING and Lee Chyen Yee in HONG KONG; Writing by Matt Driskill; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Comments

[charlieg20817]

02:01 AM on 05/09/2012

A lot of the commenters have made the right points. It is stupid to have intelligence in the television unless you believe that the technology will not advance or that your TV will not last.
My belief is that the technology will explode in the next three years.

One of my TV's I picked up on the streets of San Francisco in 1985 because the guy who was giving it away was being forced to do so by his children who were embarrassed that he had an such an old TV. I don't have any children so I can still use this along with my other four TVs. So having an old low quality non-hi def TV may not be the one that I would watch for hours on end there is still a need for dumb screens. I believe that HD screens of today should last as long.

The cost of the brains of this operation will constantly evolve. We can now buy a RasberryPI for $35.00 and a high def webcam to replace the kinect. Home automation and everything else is going to go through that system. I don't think that anyone is going to want any one company to own that interface. We have to have open source, open access, cloud applications etc. Don't let any one manufacture own this whether it is Apple, Google, Microsoft, CISCO, FIOS, or Comcast. If you get locked into a proprietary system you will regret it.

[rojcar]

10:28 PM on 05/08/2012

Lenovo did well in computers because they bought a huge swath of technology and intellectual property from IBM in the form of Thinkpad and Think brand. However, they will lose their edge over time. Other products? The Chinese are only good at buying, and stealing technology. Not creating it. Yes they are the worlds factory, but they do not create any of it. This is not about to change. Read the article - game consoles are banned? Seriously? Throw in the great firewall of China, the constant and rampant use of technology to spy on Chinese citizens by the government, and the total corruption of business by communist members, and it becomes obvious that the Chinese model is a house of cards that is destined to fall down in spectacular colors. Just give it time.

[thtech]

05:23 PM on 05/08/2012

I think I'll pass, the computer in this will be obsolete in 3 years, and there is no way to change the "guts" of the system. Samsung got this one right. This is also why I'll never have a fruit tv, or any tv that I cannot upgrade.

[tulsey]

04:50 PM on 05/08/2012

A few years ago a digital picture frame was being marketed that you could hook up to your PC and upload your pictures. Turns out it would then steal your information and send it to, wait for it...China. This is not a tin foil hat tale, first heard of it from Richard Clark, the cyber guy, on NPR.

[landskroon]

03:22 PM on 05/08/2012

Once, long ago many Americans had a job making superior equipment for Audio and TV. First it went to Japan, now it`s in China, including production, research and, the profits. What products will follow ? computers, cars, planes ? All you have got left is agriculture (poisoning land and air) and of course the best exportproduct: weaponry although, new JSF is not going to make it.
Use some expertise to regain some industry, it might be to rescue American jobs.

[tinwhiskers]

04:34 AM on 05/09/2012

We're gonna be a '3rd world' country exporting corn. haha

[BushBites]

02:03 PM on 05/08/2012

They no longer have to plant listening devices on people.

They just get people to buy their own listening devices, take them home, and plug them in.

[Lechiffre]

02:28 PM on 05/08/2012

They will hack those android tv so that they listen conversations in your own homes. yeah they no longer need to show up when you are out and plant devices. this right here will make their lives easy. Plus is it that difficult to watch regular tv ?

[renniz]

01:53 PM on 05/08/2012

How big is your Android device?

[bluguy8]

01:37 PM on 05/08/2012

I'll wait for the itv.

[ProCynic]

02:07 PM on 05/08/2012

So Apple can tell you what to watch, who to watch it from, and how to watch it. Nice call.

[berrycuda]

01:27 PM on 05/08/2012

They are made in the same Chinese factories as all but Samsung's are made in.

Don't buy it, they money goes to China, thanks to IBM selling out...


prediction:
There will be NO television in 10 years...

[pcpc]

03:33 PM on 05/08/2012

Let's be realistic here. If you refuse to buy anything made in China, you'll have nothing and likely naked.

[ThaGovna]

01:17 PM on 05/08/2012

Sweeeeeet!

[Mirriam Egglebrecht]

01:14 PM on 05/08/2012

Is it smart enough to make me a sandwich?

[Gravenstein]

03:06 PM on 05/08/2012

Are you?

[Trube]

01:10 PM on 05/08/2012

What's the point? They can't even download porn over there.

[AngryMonkey]

01:06 PM on 05/08/2012

Can their workers afford one?

[barindersharma]

01:27 PM on 05/08/2012

Can we?

[AngryMonkey]

03:26 PM on 05/08/2012

You got that right. f&f

[Dewts]

01:05 PM on 05/08/2012

reading this on a lenovo laptop. they make the best keyboards in the business. great products.

[OuweLul]

12:53 PM on 05/08/2012

I have had a Smart TV for 3 years.

24 Inch Samsung LED monitor

PC with satellite card going out to my 80 CM dish, getting Satelllites, Astra 1, 2, 3 (all HD) and Hotbird. Total of 6000 radio and TV channels. many FTA.

Those satelliites are not avialable over the North American continent.

record and watch TV direct to my hard dis.

[tinwhiskers]

04:40 AM on 05/09/2012

Does it matter where the satellites are? Are you saying that no-one in the world is downloading and streaming those 6000 channels on the internet?