Samsung Electronics is unlikely to bring its first phones running the Tizen operating system to the U.S. market, according to a U.S.-based Samsung executive.
Ryan Bidan, Samsung's director of product marketing for its U.S. mobile operations, said that Samsung has not announced anything specific related to Tizen for the U.S. market, but is continuing to work on devices. However, an in interview with FierceWireless here at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, he indicated that U.S. consumers shouldn't hold their breath for a Samsung Tizen phone.
"We don't feel the U.S. is a great test market for those kinds of products," he said, noting that Samsung will likely roll out Linux-based Tizen phones in other regions of the world. "The U.S. market is pretty mature. Bringing a new entrant here that doesn't meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don't want to set ourselves up for failure."
Tizen phones will likely start to be sold by the end of March, NTT DoCoMo spokesman Jun Otori told AFP on Wednesday. Samsung's first Tizen smartphone will likely be unveiled next month around the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Japan's Mainichi Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Samsung is the largest backer of the Tizen Association, an open-source group that was created through the merger of the former MeeGo and LiMo platforms. Other Tizen supporters include Sprint (NYSE:S), Intel, Huawei, Orange and Vodafone. Samsung has positioned Tizen as one of its many platform options, but analysts have consistently said Samsung could be using Tizen as a hedge against Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, which is Samsung's bread and butter for smartphones and tablets. (Samsung also supports Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone 8 platform.)
In the wide-ranging interview, Bidan touted the company line that it must innovate on software as well as hardware to set itself apart. "It's absolutely the right direction for us. Our opportunity to differentiate and create really neat products for consumers lies in a holistic product solution--hardware and software," he said.
At the same time, Bidan acknowledged that Samsung has invested heavily in a multitude of software features for devices like its Galaxy S4 smartphone, but that with so many of them, consumers could easily lose track and not use them. Bidan estimated that when Samsung unveiled the S4 in March the company went through well over 80 different software features, ranging from "Air View," which allows a user to hover with their fingers over the screen to preview the content of an email, image gallery or video without having to open it, to an "S Translate" translating service that supports English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Latin American Spanish, and supports speech to text and text to speech.
"It's something we struggle with all the time," he said, referring to how Samsung can continue to push software innovations without creating so much clutter that consumers lose interest. "It takes a certain amount of discipline to bring focus into that." This year, Bidan said, Samsung will focus more on "refining the things we are talking about and being more focused in the messages we are bringing to consumers" since there are likely only a handful of features consumers will find meaningful.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones and handsets by volume, made a splash last fall with the introduction of its Galaxy Gear smart watch. Smart watches, and wearables in general, have been a major theme of CES this year, and Samsung executives have said the Gear was just Samsung's first stab at wearables. Some consumers blanched at the $399 price tag for the device, which is essentially tethered to a Samsung smartphone. Samsung said in November it had shipped 800,000 Gear smart watches in two months since its debut despite middling reviews of the gadget.
Bidan said Samsung went with the watch form factor and the idea of getting notifications on the wrist because they were familiar and easy to understand concepts. However, he said that "for wearables to take off, we need to find those consumer use cases, we need to make them relevant, we need to make them interesting." Until Samsung and other companies get wearables into the mass market, they are not going to know what those experiences are, he said. Without giving anything away, Bidan said that Gear is "a platform that can be extended."
http://www.fiercewireless.com
Sabtu, 11 Januari 2014
Samsung: Tizen isn’t coming to the US any time soon
Tizen has been in development for ages now, but an actual smartphone running on the OS is still missing from the market. Samsung has announced its plans to address that glaring fault in the near future, but if you’re in the U.S. and are looking forward to trying out Samsung’s new OS, then you might be in for a bit of disappointment. Ryan Bidan, Samsung’s director of product marketing in the US, has revealed in an interview that the company doesn’t intend to bring Tizen stateside any time soon, certainly not in 2014, as it considers the U.S. to be a mature market that won’t be too welcoming of a new player in the mobile operating system war.
“We don’t feel the U.S. is a great test market for those kinds of products. The U.S. market is pretty mature. Bringing a new entrant here that doesn’t meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure.”
Bidan has a point: the smartphone market in the U.S. is divided almost evenly between the iPhone and Android phones, with even Windows Phone finding it hard to make the slightest dent in a space held by Apple and Google’s operating systems, and consumers aren’t exactly looking at switching to a new OS. Furthermore, emerging smartphone markets are where upcoming OS will find an easier time trying to make their presence felt, as these are the markets where those moving from feature phones to smartphones won’t have favoritism or inclination towards a particular OS.
Of course, with Android having overtaken almost 80 percent of the global smartphone market, even immature smartphone markets won’t exactly prove easy targets for Tizen. But then again, considering almost half of that 80 percent is full of Samsung devices, coupled with the company’s plans to make Tizen run nicely on extremely low-level hardware, the Korean manufacturer might just be able to position its OS as the third ecosystem pretty soon, if only because of a lot of marketing.
http://www.sammobile.com/
“We don’t feel the U.S. is a great test market for those kinds of products. The U.S. market is pretty mature. Bringing a new entrant here that doesn’t meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure.”
Bidan has a point: the smartphone market in the U.S. is divided almost evenly between the iPhone and Android phones, with even Windows Phone finding it hard to make the slightest dent in a space held by Apple and Google’s operating systems, and consumers aren’t exactly looking at switching to a new OS. Furthermore, emerging smartphone markets are where upcoming OS will find an easier time trying to make their presence felt, as these are the markets where those moving from feature phones to smartphones won’t have favoritism or inclination towards a particular OS.
Of course, with Android having overtaken almost 80 percent of the global smartphone market, even immature smartphone markets won’t exactly prove easy targets for Tizen. But then again, considering almost half of that 80 percent is full of Samsung devices, coupled with the company’s plans to make Tizen run nicely on extremely low-level hardware, the Korean manufacturer might just be able to position its OS as the third ecosystem pretty soon, if only because of a lot of marketing.
http://www.sammobile.com/
US won’t be part of Tizen launch; “we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure”
They’ve taken their sweet time in getting here, but Tizen devices are on their way. While there are no assurances, it sure sounds like we’re getting ready to see some of the first commercial models at the Mobile World Congress next month. But even if they do actually launch, who’s going to get them? Well, we we saw one device pass through the FCC late last month, but that guy was pretty clearly destined for operation in Japan. While we still lack a comprehensive understanding of which markets are due to see Tizen phones, there’s one we can now count out, as a Samsung exec explains that the United States is not part of the company’s Tizen launch plans.
The logic is sound enough – Samsung describes the US smartphone market as already being “pretty mature” and not necessarily a great arena to show off a new, unfamiliar product: “Bringing a new entrant here that doesn’t meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure.”
While there’s the potential there to read that as Samsung lacking confidence in its Tizen investment, we can also write it off as simply being pragmatic. Ultimately, we may see distribution more in line with the kind of thing going on with Firefox OS, or other platforms more interested in international markets. None of this is to say that the US will never see a Tizen phone, but that day could still be a long way off.
http://pocketnow.com
The logic is sound enough – Samsung describes the US smartphone market as already being “pretty mature” and not necessarily a great arena to show off a new, unfamiliar product: “Bringing a new entrant here that doesn’t meet a certain performance bar would be a challenge. Recognizing that, we don’t want to set ourselves up for failure.”
While there’s the potential there to read that as Samsung lacking confidence in its Tizen investment, we can also write it off as simply being pragmatic. Ultimately, we may see distribution more in line with the kind of thing going on with Firefox OS, or other platforms more interested in international markets. None of this is to say that the US will never see a Tizen phone, but that day could still be a long way off.
http://pocketnow.com
Samsung Galaxy S5 possible with new head and gesture control
Slowly but surely approaching the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S5 . And we did not always see as useful features of the Galaxy S4 already smart, though as Eye Pause and Scroll Eye , Samsung Galaxy S5 possible for the next generation of head-and gesture control in store. This appears, at least from a recently published European patent application.
Central to this patent, the camera on the front of the unit, which is an area for the unit - possibly the Galaxy S5 so - divided into a number of areas. By comparing these areas with each unit may lay movements and gestures, and an action for that link:
a UI method of controlling an operation of a portable electronic device accordion thing to motions (eg, a nod, a face direction, user's eyes, and the like)
The images shown above from the patent shows how a page can be turned through a zijwaartste head movement - an extension to the existing repertoire of oogbesturingsfeatures in Samsung's TouchWiz interface, especially as the patent describes how certain actions be done after The user confirms the action with a nod. In other words, an action is triggered by a head movement, but requires confirmation by a kink.
This patent application was indeed published yesterday, but all presented in early July 2013, ie, after the release of the Galaxy S4. Because of this - and because the captured opportunities this past Eye Scroll and other existing features TouchWiz go - we think this patent shows features that will make for the next generation high-end devices from Samsung, including the Galaxy S5 their appearance.
The European patent application in question can be found HERE .
PS: Moreover, it is noteworthy that Samsung bezels in this patent application - unlike else - extremely thin displays. But we get enough of patent applications here to attach little value to
Word from Samsung: 4K ready to bust out, but OLED lags
Price for next-gen pixel technology is main sticking point
When Samsung's HS Kim speaks, the industry listens. As executive vice president of Visual Display Business, Kim has helped Samsung maintain its lead as the world's best-selling brand of flat-panel TVs. Reviewed.com sat down with Kim in Seoul last December for an exclusive interview, in anticipation of new product announcements at CES 2014.
Among the surprising revelations, Kim voiced skepticism about the immediate viability of OLED televisions, but was optimistic on UHD for 2014. He also spoke about the how Smart TV interfaces will develop, and why Samsung will not be entering the content business anytime soon.
OLED's cost barrier
Last year saw the first consumer-ready models featuring two major innovations in television tech: UHD and OLED. Each promises a huge leap in picture quality from today's Full HD televisions. UHD refers to screens that have at least four times the number of pixels as Full HD, greatly increasing sharpness. A number of UHD TVs shipped in 2013, from Samsung, LG, Sony, Sharp and others. They met with generally positive reviews, but currently suffer from a lack of matching UHD content that can take full advantage of the increased sharpness.
OLED refers not to the number of pixels, but their composition. New materials allow for a richer, more dynamic viewing experience than current TVs. Only Samsung and LG sold OLED TVs in 2013. Reviews of these units were exceptionally positive, but prices started at $9,000 and went up from there.
"Not many consumers tried to purchase OLED TVs at that price," Kim said. "Price was our greatest barrier. So our attempt to expand the market didn't really go well."
The unfriendly prices, he acknowledged, are due primarily to difficulties plaguing the OLED manufacturing process. "I'm really, really terribly sorry to say this, but it will take more time. … I believe it will take around three to four years."
He admitted that at this time last year, he had predicted that it would take two or three years, indicating that the manufacturing issues are more significant than previously thought.
However, Kim remained positive on the immediate prospects of UHD. While there's little content at present, many content providers have announced intentions to begin UHD video transmissions in 2014.
Kim compared the UHD transition to the adoption of high-definition television less than a decade ago, and predicted that "the only difference between Full HD and UHD is that the UHD trend will take place faster."
In order to expedite the transition and foster growth in the UHD ecosystem, Samsung is in talks with other electronics manufacturers, as well as Hollywood studios. However, no formal partnerships have been announced at this time.
How smart can TV get?
Beyond the physical components, the other rapidly evolving aspect of television is "smart TVs." These sophisticated interfaces grow more feature-rich each year, with dozens of options for streaming content already built in.
However, reviews have frequently pointed out that certain functions meant to emulate smartphones fall flat when applied to a TV. Web browsing, Twitter, and other apps that require a lot of text input have generally been met with frustration when a remote control, rather than keyboard or touch-screen, is the sole input device.
Samsung has been on the forefront of smart TV interfaces, but now with several years of market research under its belt, it may be ready to make some changes.
Television, Kim states, is a "lean-back" experience. Unlike other devices, TV is watched from a distance, so getting the user interface right is critical. Previous Samsung TVs have debuted gesture and voice commands, and the new TVs for 2014 will continue to refine those features.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Read more news from CES 2014
Samsung's mobile division is, of course, also in deep partnership with the Android platform, producing products like the Galaxy S4, the top-selling phone of 2013.
Rumors and wishes for a Samsung Android television have kicked around the Internet for some time. Kim did not entirely dismiss the possibility, but didn't seem particularly keen on it.
"From the consumer's perspective," he stated, "when they watch TV it doesn't matter whether it's a Google or an Android or a Samsung TV."
However, he left the door open by concluding that "if Android TV can provide the best optimal viewing experience, then Samsung will provide that."
Samsung is no Netflix
With millions of homes watching to Samsung smart TVs every night, it might seem natural to wonder whether the company is exploring the idea of cutting out the middleman of cable providers and getting into the content business itself.
Kim was absolutely firm on this point. "We don't care to enter into an area that we don't do well. Which means that we don't have any experience in the content area. ... I am not convinced that we can earn profit in the contents business," he said.
With a new year ahead and many new and competing TVs, Samsung appears poised to retain its lead.
http://www.usatoday.com
When Samsung's HS Kim speaks, the industry listens. As executive vice president of Visual Display Business, Kim has helped Samsung maintain its lead as the world's best-selling brand of flat-panel TVs. Reviewed.com sat down with Kim in Seoul last December for an exclusive interview, in anticipation of new product announcements at CES 2014.
Among the surprising revelations, Kim voiced skepticism about the immediate viability of OLED televisions, but was optimistic on UHD for 2014. He also spoke about the how Smart TV interfaces will develop, and why Samsung will not be entering the content business anytime soon.
OLED's cost barrier
Last year saw the first consumer-ready models featuring two major innovations in television tech: UHD and OLED. Each promises a huge leap in picture quality from today's Full HD televisions. UHD refers to screens that have at least four times the number of pixels as Full HD, greatly increasing sharpness. A number of UHD TVs shipped in 2013, from Samsung, LG, Sony, Sharp and others. They met with generally positive reviews, but currently suffer from a lack of matching UHD content that can take full advantage of the increased sharpness.
OLED refers not to the number of pixels, but their composition. New materials allow for a richer, more dynamic viewing experience than current TVs. Only Samsung and LG sold OLED TVs in 2013. Reviews of these units were exceptionally positive, but prices started at $9,000 and went up from there.
"Not many consumers tried to purchase OLED TVs at that price," Kim said. "Price was our greatest barrier. So our attempt to expand the market didn't really go well."
The unfriendly prices, he acknowledged, are due primarily to difficulties plaguing the OLED manufacturing process. "I'm really, really terribly sorry to say this, but it will take more time. … I believe it will take around three to four years."
He admitted that at this time last year, he had predicted that it would take two or three years, indicating that the manufacturing issues are more significant than previously thought.
However, Kim remained positive on the immediate prospects of UHD. While there's little content at present, many content providers have announced intentions to begin UHD video transmissions in 2014.
Kim compared the UHD transition to the adoption of high-definition television less than a decade ago, and predicted that "the only difference between Full HD and UHD is that the UHD trend will take place faster."
In order to expedite the transition and foster growth in the UHD ecosystem, Samsung is in talks with other electronics manufacturers, as well as Hollywood studios. However, no formal partnerships have been announced at this time.
How smart can TV get?
Beyond the physical components, the other rapidly evolving aspect of television is "smart TVs." These sophisticated interfaces grow more feature-rich each year, with dozens of options for streaming content already built in.
However, reviews have frequently pointed out that certain functions meant to emulate smartphones fall flat when applied to a TV. Web browsing, Twitter, and other apps that require a lot of text input have generally been met with frustration when a remote control, rather than keyboard or touch-screen, is the sole input device.
Samsung has been on the forefront of smart TV interfaces, but now with several years of market research under its belt, it may be ready to make some changes.
Television, Kim states, is a "lean-back" experience. Unlike other devices, TV is watched from a distance, so getting the user interface right is critical. Previous Samsung TVs have debuted gesture and voice commands, and the new TVs for 2014 will continue to refine those features.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: Read more news from CES 2014
Samsung's mobile division is, of course, also in deep partnership with the Android platform, producing products like the Galaxy S4, the top-selling phone of 2013.
Rumors and wishes for a Samsung Android television have kicked around the Internet for some time. Kim did not entirely dismiss the possibility, but didn't seem particularly keen on it.
"From the consumer's perspective," he stated, "when they watch TV it doesn't matter whether it's a Google or an Android or a Samsung TV."
However, he left the door open by concluding that "if Android TV can provide the best optimal viewing experience, then Samsung will provide that."
Samsung is no Netflix
With millions of homes watching to Samsung smart TVs every night, it might seem natural to wonder whether the company is exploring the idea of cutting out the middleman of cable providers and getting into the content business itself.
Kim was absolutely firm on this point. "We don't care to enter into an area that we don't do well. Which means that we don't have any experience in the content area. ... I am not convinced that we can earn profit in the contents business," he said.
With a new year ahead and many new and competing TVs, Samsung appears poised to retain its lead.
http://www.usatoday.com
Galaxy S5 might feature head tracking gesture controls
Samsung’s phones offer many gesture-based features such as Smart Stay and Smart Pause, and the Galaxy S5 might come with even more advanced gesture control functionality, according to a patent application filed by Samsung. The patent listing describes things such as a nod of the head and a wink being used to carry out a particular function – for example, the phone would go back to the last webpage in a browser if a head movement to the left is detected, and to the next page on a nod to the right side.
Detection of which way the user’s head moves would be done by dividing the image received by the camera into various section, then observing the change in a particular section to carry out a specific function. The patent’s publication date is only two days old but it was filed way back in July last year, so it does look like the Galaxy S5 could come with advanced gesture controls that go way beyond what is available on devices right now. Of course, the new features will likely be as hit-and-miss as current ones, but then again, that has never stopped Samsung from piling on more and more “smart” functionality, has it?
Samsungs Kim says cheap OLED-Tv in three or four years!
Major problems to produce cheap large OLED-panels
In an interview with USATODAY the vice president of Samsung Visual Display Business HS Kim says that Samsung Display has problems at the manufacturing process. To solve this major problems Kim thinks that Samsung Display need more time and he think it will take around three or four years to produce cost competitive large OLED-Television devices.
The price of an OLED-TV is the greatest barrier, not many consumers tried to purchase OLED-Tvs at that kind of price Kim said. So remember the KN55S9CAF a curved 55 inch OLED-Display from Samsung cost about 8.000-9.000 Euros.
The price is so high because Samsung Display as difficulties at the OLED manufacturing process. Many companies are working on cheap Organic light panels, we think the solution is InkJet Printing. Merck plans to co-operate her with LG-Display, Kateeva also plans to work with some korean gigant. He admitted that at this time last year, he had predicted that it would take two or three years, indicating that the manufacturing issues are more significant than previously thought.
That are bad news but LG-Display use WOLED technology and this kind of technology is easier in the manufacturing process. So we think that LG-Display go on to push OLED-Television as fast as possible, so the chance to be the leadership is great for LG. At the CES-2014 Samsung showcase no new device, only a 55 inch bendable prototype device, but LG introduced five models which are production ready.
Also Sony and Panasonic has problems with the manufacturing process, but they plans to use inkjet printing technology.
Both companies fail because they did not reach the goal because because of the production costs. Now Panasonic showcased printed panels at CES-2014 and they use AUO produced Oxide-TFT backplanes and Sumitomo’s P-OLED materials and a direct-emission architecture.
http://news.oled-display.net
In an interview with USATODAY the vice president of Samsung Visual Display Business HS Kim says that Samsung Display has problems at the manufacturing process. To solve this major problems Kim thinks that Samsung Display need more time and he think it will take around three or four years to produce cost competitive large OLED-Television devices.
The price of an OLED-TV is the greatest barrier, not many consumers tried to purchase OLED-Tvs at that kind of price Kim said. So remember the KN55S9CAF a curved 55 inch OLED-Display from Samsung cost about 8.000-9.000 Euros.
The price is so high because Samsung Display as difficulties at the OLED manufacturing process. Many companies are working on cheap Organic light panels, we think the solution is InkJet Printing. Merck plans to co-operate her with LG-Display, Kateeva also plans to work with some korean gigant. He admitted that at this time last year, he had predicted that it would take two or three years, indicating that the manufacturing issues are more significant than previously thought.
That are bad news but LG-Display use WOLED technology and this kind of technology is easier in the manufacturing process. So we think that LG-Display go on to push OLED-Television as fast as possible, so the chance to be the leadership is great for LG. At the CES-2014 Samsung showcase no new device, only a 55 inch bendable prototype device, but LG introduced five models which are production ready.
Also Sony and Panasonic has problems with the manufacturing process, but they plans to use inkjet printing technology.
Both companies fail because they did not reach the goal because because of the production costs. Now Panasonic showcased printed panels at CES-2014 and they use AUO produced Oxide-TFT backplanes and Sumitomo’s P-OLED materials and a direct-emission architecture.
http://news.oled-display.net
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