Samsung to play it smart with partners

Samsung is in talks with several Arab media companies to develop applications for its internet-connected televisions.

The electronics giant is testing an application for Qatar's Al Jazeera, which will offer the broadcaster's Arabic and English news stations via the internet.

Vinod Nair, the general manager for TV at Samsung Gulf Electronics, said the company was in talks with "many" media companies in the GCC, Levant and North Africa.

"We are partnering with regional content owners, content providers," he said. "For any media company that's looking to reach a much wider base of consumers, this is probably the better platform to do it."

Television applications work in a similar way to those on smartphones, with users downloading apps from a dedicated store. Samsung claims to have 1,000 applications designed for its smart TVs.

Since March, the company claims to be benefiting from an average 50 per cent month-on-month increase in sales of smart TVs in the GCC, although Mr Nair acknowledged that was from "a low base".

"By 2014, practically every new TV will be a connected TV," he added.

bflanagan@thenational.ae