Samsung launches TV App Store, 3D TVs in US - pips Sony Vizio

Samsung has announced what it calls an App Store for TVs, using the announcement as a launch pad for its 3D TV effort, claiming it to be a first. Actually this is going to be a popular direction for many over the top video operations and we already know that TiVo has a very similar nascent App Store, and that in Europe many of the HbbTV set top builders may choose to go down this route.

The Samsung store will offer applications for its TV sets, its Blu-ray players, and home theater systems and users will be able to download applications via an upgraded Internet@TV service which was initially for downloading content only. The App Store will work with the LED 6500, 6800, 7000, 8000 and 9000 TV sets, this last range also being 3D.

Samsung says that it has Apps from The Associated Press, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, USA TODAY, and VUDU and that over 20 apps will be available by the end of March, leading to hundreds by the end of the year. The store is aimed at letting content owners and developers gain access to multiple device types for one development effort.

Of course many of these are content services, which want to control their own space and UI experience on the device rather than simply sell the content through Samsung.

Samsung will provide an Apps Software Developers Kit (SDK), which it says will be an open platform that encourages anyone from premium content owners to individual developers.

“We are making a significant step forward in delivering a more personalized, navigable and easy to use connected TV experience”

Samsung’s established leadership in the “connected TV” space began in 2008 with RSS feeds via its InfoLink feature, then extended to launching Internet@TV in 2009 and being one of the first to launch Blockbuster’s streaming movie rental and purchase service on select HDTVs and Blu-ray players. Premium apps will be available for purchase via the platform’s transactional interface in the second half of 2010, says Samsung.

The truth is that Samsung and Sony have all made progress down this route more or less in step with one another. However this week while Sony was leaking the fact that it is going after a three screen approach, with an App and Content store being set up that will work with phones, TVs and PCs, Samsung is ahead, in that it is already delivering it. Vizio tried to claim the lead in 3D TVs at CES, but is not yet delivering them.

Apps available for download today span information, video, lifestyle, games, and sports, Samsung said, so for instance a viewer can track breaking news while watching a favorite TV series. Several anticipated apps will allow interactivity between HDTVs and select Samsung WiFi-enabled phones. Consumers, for example, will be able to play Texas hold ’em poker with friends, where the TV screen shows the table and the phone serves as the controller, while showing cards in your hand like a real poker game.

Samsung also this week followed up on all the announcements it made a CES with availability announced for 3D and HD TV sets, a next generation Blu-Ray player which can work with applications from its new App Store. It says its 3D TV sets will become globally available this week.

Its 3D TV lineup includes the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series, and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series. Available this month are the 3D capable 46 inch and 55 inch LED C7000, with the remaining 3D TVs rolling out over the next several months.

The low end new Blu-ray Home theater systems are available now from $499, and the top of the range $1,000 HT-C7530W will come out in May.

The top end 1330W HT-C6930W have powerful audio systems offering 7.1-channel 3D surround sound, with Musical Room Calibration, and are designed to work with 3D TVs to bring as theater experience. They come with 1080p video playback support Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD and include eight speakers, a wide center channel speaker, two HDMI inputs, a large subwoofer, two tower speakers and four surround speakers, including wireless rear satellite speakers.

Samsung also introduced first full HD 3D LED TVs, which we covered in January, the C7000, C8000 and C9000. These all use Samsung’s Real 240Hz refresh rate and Samsung’s proprietary built-in 3D processor.

All the Samsung HD TVs are compatible with the App Store, and come with Internet@TV connectivity.

At the end of January Samsung said it had started making 3D panels for TVs sets in both LED and LCD production lines, for three different sizes 40 inch, 46 inch and 55 inch.

In January at CES Samsung refreshed its HD TV ranges from 19 inches all the way up to 65 inch LED LCD devices

Samsung has also come out with a set of 3D active matrix glasses, and says that for a limited time customers for 3D TV sets or its or the HT-C6930W 3D Home Theater System or 3D Blu-ray player, will get a free 3D Starter Kit. Included in the kit is a 3D version of “Monsters vs. Aliens,” a 2009 film by DreamWorks Animation, and two pairs of Samsung 3D Active Glasses. In the second half of 2010, Samsung will upgrade this to the entire Shrek film series in 3D Blu-ray.

In line with a new trend, and evident this week from TiVo, Samsung will also introduce new remote control with a screen (see TiVo story last week). This comes with the C9000 Series and has a 3 inch colour touch-screen control with a a live feed of the channel you’re currently watching.

It also lets you watch TV or Blu-ray DVD titles on the remote instead of watching what’s on TV. The remote includes a Qwerty keyboard (TiVO added this so that it can aid text searches for VoD films) and it uses Wi-Fi for communications.

Finally Samsung added the R1 and R0 MP3 players both in two version with 8GB and 16 GB of storage with the R0 costing $100 and $130 and the R1 costing $150 and $180, out now in the UK and from some retailers in the US.

The R1 is credit card sized and both can also play video content. These devices are aimed squarely at the Apple Nano, except for the fact that the Nano has its own miniature low level on-board camera. They feature video, music and photo playback and up to 50 hours of audio and four hours of video battery and both offer DivX so a lot of web video will play on the things.