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Samsung’s focus during their press event was clearly visible from the start, to design and produce products that would help consumers transition their own home to the Home of the Future. Samsung’s CEO, BK Yoon, describes how the world is continuously changing and producing new challenges, from global climate and weather changes, to how people are carrying out their daily lives.
To meet these challenges Samsung is focused on the concept of a Futuristic Home, where chores no longer feel like chores, and activities of your daily life are more enjoyable. Samsung is calling this Samsung Smart Home, where your Samsung devices are enabled to communicate with other Samsung devices in your house, (I.e., TV’s, appliances and smartphones) across an integrated platform.
The audience was provided an example of how you would simply tell your Samsung Galaxy Gear to turn on your TV, or using your Samsung smartphone to monitor your washing machine.
To begin the product unveiling, Samsung Electronics America Executive Vice President Joe Stinziano, brought out the highly anticipated, and world’s first, 105 inch curved UHDTV. Not only does the TV display content at 4K, but the screen is actually curved to display content in a more cinematic manner. The curved UHDTV will feature 11 million pixels, producing an astonishing resolution of 5120X2160. The curved UHDTV’s will be available in sizes ranging from 50 to 105 inches, but Samsung was very cautious not to leak any details of the pricing.
Samsung also announced that they have entered partnerships with Amazon, Netflix, Comcast and DIRECTV, who will be delivering UHD content to Samsung’s new TV lineup.
Samsung’s curved UHDTV will have amazing features such as UHD upscaling, to ensure whichever program you may be watching will be displayed in the best viewing experience, as well as new multi-link screens, which allow the viewer to utilize one half of the screen to watch their program of choice, and the other half for internet browsing.
Going one step further, Samsung also released the work’s first bendable UHDTV. So now not only can the viewer watch their favourite show on a flat screen, but with a push of one button you can transform the flat screen into a curved UHDTV.
Samsung also enlisted the help of Mark Cuban, as most of us know is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who described UHDTV as “a better viewing experience”. Samsung also announced that they would be partnering with the NBA to provide a court side perspective to viewers across their mobile devices, bringing the viewer closer to the action.
To further add to their partnerships with UFC and MLB, Samsung announced another partnership with the PGA, and briefly spoke with PGA CEO Pete Bevacqua. This partnership will again bring viewers closer to the action as they can use their mobile device to watch their favourite golfers in a new perspective, giving viewers the best seat in the house, especially for the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhall Golf Club in Lousiville, as well as the 2016 Ryder Cup in Chaska, Minnesota.
Finally, Samsung also brought out the director of the Transformers action series, Micheal Bay. Unfortunately due to some, incorrect typing on the teleprompter in the rear of the room, Micheal was too flustered to continue and left the event in a hurry.
For speculation purposes, It will be interesting to see how producing a such a large “World’s First” product will perform in today’s market. It does come with the potential that consumers may not be suited for the product, or that the cinematic experience may be too futuristic. On the contrary, Samsung is known for producing high quality products, and their TV lineup has become extremely successful over the past few years. It’ll be interesting to see how the Curved and Bendable UHDTV’s will perform.