Samsung to unveil Tizen smart TVs

South Korean electronics giant Samsung, the biggest TV manufacturer in the world, is gearing up to compete with Google as it moves to make smart TVs.

It will unveil the first set of TVs which would run on the Tizen software later this week.

The TVs would be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show where Samsung is likely to demonstrate how the device could communicate with other electronic devices like vacuum cleaners, washing machines, etc.

According to commentators, the market for internet-connected appliances is worth about $7.1 trillion.

Last year, Samsung launched Tizen-based phones, which failed to  generate a favourable response and the company was now trying to use it for TVs and other electronics products the way Apple and Google were using their OS.

The company had risen to the No 1 position globally for its phone sales, but these depended  on Google's Android.

The software powered 243 million smartphones Samsung shipped through 30 September. Google had given away the software in exchange for mobile advertising revenue and a share of app sales.

Samsung however now faced the strongest challenge to its phone supremacy after posting the smallest quarterly earnings in over two years. Operating profit at the mobile-phone unit, the company's biggest cash generator, was down 74 per cent in the September quarter while sales retreated 33 per cent.

Reuters reported that Samsung's Lee family was trying to reinvent the electronic giant as a purveyor of internet-connected appliances to grab share of the $7.1-trillion market by 2020.

Quoting Seoul-based analyst at Daishin Securities Co Reuters said there was no chance that the company's Tizen could edge out the two dominant operating systems. However, Samsung did stand a chance in TVs, he added.