Samsung starts sales of Tizen-powered TVs in home market

South Korea's top tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. began sales of its first Tizen-powered TV on Thursday in its home market, the first step in the company's strategy to connect all its consumer electronics to the operating system.
  

The newly launched models are curved SUHD TVs, the latest version of the high-end product that touts a far brighter display compared to traditional Ultra HD or organic light-emitting diode screens. The company said an SUHD TV can display over 1 billion colors, 64 times more than the existing models.

Samsung released it in four sizes -- 88, 78, 65, and 55 inches. The price tag on the 55-inch version is 5.49 million won ($5,038).
  

Samsung's UHD TVs were first showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month and caught eyes with their quantum-dot technology that uses a semiconductor nanostructure to improve brightness, visibility and power efficiency of the displays.
  

The technology, which Samsung refers to as "nanocrystal technology," does not use cadmium, which is cited as an environmental concern.
  

The SUHD lineup is expected to be launched in the U.S., Europe and other major markets in the near future, but Samsung did not provide details.
  

"Currently, high-end models take up 10 percent of our combined shipment of TVs, which accounts for around 25 to 30 percent in revenue," said Kim Hyun-suk, who heads Samsung's display division. "We expect the SUHD lineup will be similar to that."
  

With Samsung planning to sell around 60 million TVs in 2015, the estimated sales of SUHD models are expected to reach 6 million units.
  

"Although we expect foreign-exchange fluctuations will affect performances this year, we will make efforts to bolster revenue and profits on the back of the premium-level products," Kim added.
  

The company has said it will continue to promote the Tizen operating system by eventually applying it to all other consumer electronics for a fully connected platform.
  

Tizen is an open-source operating system for smart devices, promoted by Samsung, Intel, Huawei and other global tech players. Samsung has been playing a leading role in its development, also launching the first Tizen-powered smartphone in India last month. (Yonhap)