Samsung Sets Sights on TV Apps

September 11, 2013 Leave a comment

Sep 10, 2013

Samsung Sets Sights on TV Apps

MIN-JEONG LEE

Samsung Electronics Co.005930.SE -0.64% has been beefing up its software capabilities for its smartphones to compete with Apple Inc.  Now, it’s also setting its sights on apps for its Internet-connected TVs. At the IFA trade show in Berlin last week, the company unveiled two new applications for its Smart TVs allowing users to view high-quality pictures or video clips. The ‘Opera App’ allows users to view around 100 opera shows that are performed in Austria’s Wien National Opera House, while the ‘Gallery App’ allows users to view high-definition photos taken by popular photographers like Alex Maclean. Both apps can be downloaded for free from Samsung’s proprietary TV app platform. The move is part of Samsung’s bid to keep its dominant TV market share and highlights its  ambitions in improving content for its consumer products. But the question remains whether consumers will be fascinated by the availability of more TV apps.  Software has been a key weakness for Samsung and when it comes to smartphones, the South Korean company predominantly uses Google Inc.’sGOOG +0.07% Android for its mobile devices. Samsung, along with rivals such as LG Electronics Inc.066570.SE -1.20% and Sony Corp.6758.TO -0.70% has been fighting sluggish demand for TVs worldwide, with its TV unit sales falling 7.5% in the second quarter from a year earlier. Samsung doesn’t break out profit figures for its TV business separately. Coming out with a number of new premium models has been a key strategy for Samsung’s TV business this year, with the company announcing the launch of 55-inch and 65-inch ultra high definition TVs earlier this year. Samsung has been racing against crosstown rival LG to sell both flat-panel TVs and curved ones that use organic light-emitting diode display technology. Aside from the hefty rice tags of  these TV models, the lack of video streaming content that match the high resolution of UHD TVs has been a big deterrent to adoption, analysts say.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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