Several Smart TV makers are taking no chances amid rumors of Apple’s entry into the Smart TV market. They are reportedly attempting to form alliances with each other to defend their piece of the pie from the looming Apple threat.
In particular, TPV Technology and LG Electronics are said to be either forming alliances with one another or are seeking out additional partners for smart TV alliances, sources speaking to DigiTimes say. They add that China-based TV brand Changhong has also formed an alliance and is placing bets on a cloud-based interface for its offerings which it hopes to solidify within three years.
While the report is from the less-than-reliable DigiTimes, it does make sense for the established firms to begin planting their feet to attempt to defend their suddenly precarious positions in the Smart TV market.
DigiTimes’ sources say that the TV makers are reportedly banking on features for their own designs that will resemble Samsung’s set designs. The same sources say the makers “will still need a lot of time before models start hitting stores.”
With rumors indicating that Apple plans to begin production of its first TV’s later this year, for introduction no later than early 2013, it appears that Apple is set to take yet another multi-year lead on the competition.
It is fair to remind readers that all of the above reports, rumors and conjecture comes from a statement that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs made last year to biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “cracked” the concept for the future of television.
Isaacson would write in his best-selling biography that Jobs “wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant.”
If Apple’s television comes to fruition, it will be entertaining in itself to see the major television makers scramble to do what phone and MP3 makers were unable to do in the past — Keep Apple from claiming a major piece of yet another market pie.
