San Francisco— As the much glorified Consumer Electronics Show is geared up to begin this week,
., in an attempt to put the California firm’s Internet-based services that can be accessed directly through new Samsung TVs.
The internet-connected television market will be in full blossom at CES 2009, LG, which on Monday said that it will announce its first Netflix-streaming TVs, and now Samsung is making alliance with Yahoo on the Yahoo! Widget Engine, an Internet applications suite that can be accessed directly through Samsung’s newest lineup of HDTVs that will sport “Internet@TV”.
Samsung agreed to support the new technology inside of selected high-density flat-panel television models to be displayed this week at a premier Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will feature Yahoo! “widgets,” mini applications which access Internet services.
The accessibility of TV-based widgets traces its footprint to last year’s CES, when Intel CEO Paul Otellini showed off the “Canmore” system-on-a-chip in televisions and set top boxes.
In August 2008, Intel and Yahoo at the Intel Developers’ Forum in San Francisco made a surprise announcement to co-develop the Yahoo Widget Channel, a technology that would allow TVs to connect to the Internet to access “widgets,” bits of software that would add value to the TV software experience, according to a demonstration of the technology. Motorola, Samsung, and Toshiba were among the hardware partners that endorsed the technology at its launch.
Samsung televisions manufactured with an “Internet@TV” content service will allow viewers to check online news or stock portfolios as well as see videos or pictures on the Web, according to the companies.
“Through this partnership, we can combine the Internet benefits of user choice and personalization with Samsung’s leading product innovation and global reach to deliver a new experience to users around the world,” said Yahoo!’s Connected TV vice president Patrick Barry.
Select 2009 internet-connected Samsung HDTVs will arrive with the service built in, with the power to access JavaScript and XML apps from the likes of Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo News properties, USA Today, eBay, and Showtime Networks. Samsung says the widget-enabled TVs it is showing this week will not come to retail until spring.
“Samsung has been a proven innovator in Internet-enabled TV technology for some time now, offering the ground-breaking InfoLink service last year in 2008,” said Boo-Keun Yoon, executive vice president of the visual display division at Samsung Electronics, in a statement. “There is no denying that the user-friendly, one-touch of the remote control service successfully provides information simply and effectively. The collaboration with Yahoo! lets viewers go one step further. This new interface allows them to interact and connect with many of their favorite Web services on a personal level. It is frankly way beyond just passively watching broadcasts and is no doubt the future of TV.”
Samsung stated that it is employing an open software platform strategy so that outside developers can build custom applications viewers can install in its Internet-linked televisions as desired.
The TVs will be available in the U.S, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
The new televisions will be on display at CES this week, connected either via a direct Ethernet cable or a USB Wi-Fi dongle.