China TV Manufacturers Flicker in 'Smart' Era

Search star Google played the lead role at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where, on opening day eve, the Internet giant unveiled a plan for television products and introduced exclusive hardware partners. Each partner then proceeded to spend the rest of the show touting new wares on Google's behalf.

Electronics device king Apple will also launch a new TV product of its own.

Google TV and Apple TV are dragging the global television industry into the era of so-called smart TV – a broadcast system that offers video-on-demand, Internet browsing, interactive gaming, voice communications and more in a single package. These systems threaten to wrest content control from television stations and give IT companies a long-sought route into the TV market.

Also in Las Vegas, major Chinese IT and television companies rolled out their own smart TV products. Executives presiding at the introductions included Hisense Group Chairman Zhou Hojian, TCL Chairman Li Dongsheng, Skyworth Group Chairman Zhang Xuebin, and Lenovo Group Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing.

Yet each Chinese presentation had to struggle for attention in the shadow of the Google event. No matter how flashy the exhibit, not a single Chinese television set company brought a commercially viable smart TV operating system to the show.

Hu Jianyong, vice president for sales at Qingdao-based Hinsense, told Caixin his company has been investing heavily in smart TV development. Since announcing a new strategy last May, the company has built products based on a proprietary operating system as well as Google's Android mobile phone OS.  

Most smart TVs use the Android system, but there's a lot of mismatching in areas such as interfaces and operations, and problems with migrating the smartphone system to television. These and other flaws initially cooled consumer interest in Google's products and slowed the company's TV initiatives.

But a clear message from the Las Vegas was that Google and Apple appear to be ready to start grabbing market share – and frustrate Chinese TV manufacturers.

China is the world's largest TV producer, yet none of its factories make high-end LCD panels. Moreover, Chinese companies lack certain key forms of technology for making plasma TV sets, and Changhong Electric Co. Ltd. is the nation's only producer of high-end plasma panels.