Era of Internet TVs

PEOPLE want to use the Internet everywhere today on any device, and the latest trend is to have it on TVs.

To meet this new demand, Panasonic Malaysia will be offering Viera Connect, a new cloud-based Internet service, in line with the launch of its Viera plasma, LED and LCD TVs for 2011.

The company's managing director Jeff Lee said the function of TVs has changed through out the years.

"From just a large box to play films to displaring vivid colour in full HD and 3D format, TVs today have embraced the Internet technology, hence giving birth to what we called Internet protocol TV or IPTV," he said at the product launch in Genting Highland last week.

Lee said as the demand for flat panel TVs becomes stable, there will be two key factors that will drive the market and these are 3D technology and IPTV functionality.

"By 2014, we expect 3D TVs to make up over 30 ercent of the global market, which is equivalent to 90 million sets. Similarly we expect 40 percent of all TVs to have IPTV functionality by the same year," he said.

Panasonic's IPTV offerings will be available via Viera Connect, which is the company's cloud-based Internet service.

Within this expanding market, Panasonic's IPTVs have an edge as they have the capacity to deliver wide-ranging content and services that meet the needs of local consumers.

Lee said among the services users can expect from Viera Connect include video, music, games, social networking, news and information.

The video services include streaming platforms such as YouTube, USTREAM, WOW TV and Dailymotion; while the music service will allow users to stream and listen to music via SHOUTcast, a media streaming application on their Viera TVs.

For gamers, the service now offers a number of games which include Penalty Shoot Out, Free throw, Black Jack, Chess, Poker, Solitaire, Mine Sweeper, Dracula’s coffin and Number Place, and uers can download them for free.

Meanwhile, the social networking, news and information service will enable uers to log on to Facebook and Twitter on their Viera TVs, as well as make video calls via the Skype application. Lee said Panasonic will be working towards creating more exciting television experiences by accelerating the development of related technologies, as well as collaborating with developers to create more content for Viera Connect.

"We are also the official sponsor for next year's Olympic Game in London where many of the events will be shown in 3D," he said.

On the 3D technology segment, he said today Panasonic has 3D offerings from screen sizes between 37-inch up to 152-inch. The 3D full HD feature will be sustained by two key panel technologies that are the NeoPlasma for the Viera plasma TVs and IPS Alpha for the Viera LED LCD and LCD Tvs.

Altogether, Panasonic launcged 13 new TVs which include nine plasma models and four LED LCDs, and three LCD models, off which six are 3D models.

"This time, we have also made available 3D glasses in different sizes to better cater to people's comfortability wearing them," said Lee.

Other enhancement made include making 2D sources into 3D, THX-certified picture quality, Wi-Fi ready, 15 percent improvemet in luminous efficiency for better picture quality and lower power consumption.

Commenting on sales target, Panasonic malaysia's marketing director Hidekazu Sasaki said the company is looking at 23 percent share in the total flat panel sales in Malaysia this year, which is the same as 2010.

"However, in the 3D segment, we target to achieve 20 percent market share from 15 percent last year," he said.

Sasaki said Malaysia is a very important market to Panasonic sales contribution with a number one postion in Southeast Asia and number eight in the world.

"Globally, Panasonic is loking at double-digit growth this year," he added. On weather the recent Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan will affect Panasonic business and product shipment to Malaysia, deputy managing director Chris Tomachi said the effect is not big as Panasonic main production plant in Japan is located at the Western part of the country.

"However, some of our component makers are based in the disaster area and we are doing all the best we could to ensure production is not affected," he said. Tomachi said Panasonic also has major plants in Malaysia and Thailand which are secure from the disaster and these plants will keep producing products as usual.

Pic above: At the launcing of Viera's TV platform are (from left) Sasaki, Lee, Tomachi and Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Singapore's deputy managing director Hiroyoshi Suga.