[Reuters]
LG Electronics Inc, the world’s No.2 TV maker, plans to launch Internet-enabled TV based on Google’s platform in the United States in the week of May 21, as the South Korean firm seeks to gain a larger share of the emerging Internet TV market, a senior LG executive said on Monday.
The move reflects an aggressive push by the duo to defend against a potential threat from Apple Inc, which reshaped the handset market with its iPhone smartphone and is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or early next year.
“Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and U.S. consumers will be able to buy the product from the week of May 21,” Ro Seogho, executive vice president of LG’s TV business unit, told a small group of reporters.
Google TV allows viewers to access Google services such as searches and YouTube videos on their television screens. …
LG saw its TV division’s profit margin rising sharply to above 4 percent in the first quarter, helped by strong sales of high-end models such as 3D TVs and Internet-enabled sets, just when Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp expect to have lost a combined $21 billion in the business year that ended on March 31.
LG doubled its share of the 3D TV market to 15.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from earlier in the year, helped by cheaper and lighter 3D glasses that do not require the batteries and switches used in conventional 3D sets made by Samsung, Sony and others.
Sony’s share of the 3D TV market tumbled to 13 percent in the October-December quarter from 34.6 percent in January-March quarter of last year, according to DisplaySearch. …
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