Amtran Technology Co Ltd (瑞軒科技), which makes flat-panel TVs for US top TV brand Vizio Inc, yesterday said it plans to begin shipping its smart TVs to Vizio in the second half of this year, beating local competitors to be the first Taiwanese firm to supply TVs integrated with Internet functionality.
The move would see Vizio join the world’s top TV makers, including Sony Corp, Samsung Electronics Co and LG Electronics, in the latest television niche at a time when most TV makers have delayed or shelved their products powered by Google Inc’s Android software.
Vizio recently showcased two Google TV models during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Vizio will launch the new products in the second half of the year in response to Sony’s sales of smart TVs, and we will be the first OEM company to ship smart TVs,” Derek Yu (尤彥博), special assistant to Amtran’s chief executive Alpha Wu (吳春發), said on the sidelines of a forum arranged by local market research house Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所).
Vizio’s first smart televisions will be powered by Intel’s Atom processor, Yu added.
Amtran expects shipments of Internet TVs and smart TVs to double to more than 1.1 million units this year, compared with 600,000 units last year, spokesman Scottie Chiu (邱裕平) said by telephone.
Overall, shipments of flat-panel TVs are expected grow about 27 percent this year to 7 million units, up from 5.5 million units last year, helped by new orders from LG Electronics Inc and Chinese TV makers, Chiu said.
Based on Topology’s forecast, global shipments of smart TVs would more than double to 36 million units this year, compared with 15 million units last year. Overall, global shipments of LCD TVs would grow to 210 million units this year, from last year’s 184 million units.
“The uptake of smart TVs will largely depend on whether Google can come out with a new Android system specifically designed for TVs in September,” Topolgoy analyst Maxwell Chang (張乘維) told reporters.
Samsung would be the early beneficiary from a smart TV fever, Chang said.
However, Taiwanese companies such as Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) and Wistron Corp (緯創) would also see new orders to produce smart TVs, he said.
Separately, Amtran said it had inked a license-crossing agreement with LG, settling two-year-old patent infringement lawsuits related to LCD TVs with the South Korean company, according to an Amtran filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The companies would agree to drop cases pending before the US International Trade Commission and would dismiss all outstanding actions in the appropriate courts, the statement said.
“I think the settlement will help increase [TV] orders from LG Electronics,” Chiu said.
Shares of Amtran jumped 2.56 percent to NT$28, beating the benchmark TAIEX, which rose 1.09 percent yesterday.
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