Samsung thinks UI no factor in facing Apple TV set

Samsung's AV product lead Chris Moseley in an interview Monday was dismissive of the threat posed by a possible Apple TV set. In the chat with Pocket-lint, he insisted that image quality was the primary factor and that Apple wouldn't have the image scaling or "world-renowned" picture quality. He downplayed the interface and software features, normally the highlight of Apple's devices, as backseat elements.

"TVs are ultimately about picture quality," Moseley said. "How smart they are...great, but let's face it that's a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality."

It also depended on whether Apple would have a set of its own at all, he added.

The statements come as Samsung has been making image the quality focus, with a 55-inch Super OLED set its highlight for the year. Its 2012 lineup also makes motion and voice navigation parts of the experience, although they're considered relatively simple.

While the TV market is different than Apple's existing fields, Moseley's remarks follow a pattern of the company minimizing the importance of software as well as a tendency of eventual Apple competitors to assume that their existing strategies will let them win. The most frequently cited example is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's well-known clam that the iPhone would have "no chance", only to watch as Windows phones lost nearly all their market share while iOS became second only to Android.

Apple's TV, if it reaches production, is rumored by more than one historically accurate source to use more intuitive Siri voice navigation and make software much more important than it has normally been in TVs. Historically, Apple has defeated other companies primarily by improving on these areas that others have neglected.

By Electronista Staff

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