VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese enterprises still cannot make smart TVs, but they still can benefit from smart TVs, especially the digital content service firms.

TV manufacturers have been cooperating with Vietnamese content service providers to attract more buyers

According to Garner, a market survey firm, the number of smart TVs to be manufactured in 2013 would reach 108 million and 198 million by 2016.

Once smart TVs become an important part of Vietnamese life, purely Vietnamese apps for smart TVs would see a boom. Foreign smart TV manufacturers would need to cooperate with Vietnamese firms for mutual benefits: the former can boost TV sale, while the latter can sell more apps.

Smart TVs, the latest TV technology, was once not welcomed in Vietnam, because they were too expensive and they were integrated with foreign apps only.

However, the TV manufacturers quickly realized the problem and improved the situation by cooperating with Vietnamese content service providers to attract more buyers.

Samsung is now believed the TV manufacturer who posses most TV apps, about 2,700, including 28 purely Vietnamese ones. LG has also been continuously upgrading its smart TV products with more models, higher speed processors, more integrated film, music and news contents for domestic users. Meanwhile, Sony’s smart TVs target basic services, including Internet connection, film, music or news.

Analysts have comments that the quality of Vietnamese apps is a very important factor consumers would consider when deciding what TVs to buy. Therefore, it’s now the time for Vietnamese content service firms to make money by providing apps on smart TVs.

Big Vietnamese technology groups have pioneered in providing apps for smart TVs. The apps relating to entertainments, such as listening to music, watching films and news, playing games are the most popular products.

Go.vn, for example, has developed goFilm for Samsung’s TVs, which has been recognized as one of the three apps with highest number of downloads. The advantage of go.vn is the exploitation of the huge copyrighted South Korea film app store. Cloud karaoke with the app store of 1,000 free songs and thousands of other songs.

However, according to Phan Anh Tuan, Director of Mang Vietnam go.vn, if only developing entertain apps, developers would not be able to fully exploit the “smartness” of smart TVs. Therefore, go.vn plans to put many other kinds of adds into the app stores, such as the smart traffic competition or English Olympiad. These are the main products of Mang Vietnam which have attracted millions of users.

“Education related apps have always been the advantage of go.vn. We wish to come closer to families, help parents take care of their children, while smart TV gives the chance to do this,” Tuan said.

With large screens, which is considered one of the most outstanding advantages, smart TVs can easily convince elderly people. The content apps would be more easily used with large-screen TVs than other devices with smaller screens.

Therefore, smart TVs can be compared with a fertile land for Vietnamese content service firms to cultivate. However, they now face a big challenge – the high requirements from TV manufacturers. The technologies used for TVs are not too complicated, but different manufacturers have different technology platforms. Meanwhile, Vietnamese also have to go through harsh examinations in order to have their products admitted to the app stores.

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