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Photo/Shetuwang

July 16 (NBD) -- Huawei will break into the smart TV sector with the launch of Honor's first smart display. 

The new product will be released in early August, Zhao Ming, president of Honor, said at a media briefing Monday, but no details about parameters and price range were disclosed.

Huawei's foray into the TV sector comes at a time when the level of Homes Using Television (HUT) is declining. HUT represents the percentage of households in a specific area and in a particular time period that have their television sets turned on as compared to the total number of television households in that area. 

Statistics from eMarketer showed that in 2018 mobile usage overtook TV in China, with adults spending more time with their mobile devices than with the TVs.

With regard to this, Zhao said that Huawei isn't eyeing traditional TV domain. National Business Daily noticed that the smart display will be equipped with Huawei's in-house operating system (OS), "Hongmeng", and the independently developed OS will be compatible with all Android and Web applications. 

With the advent of the 5G era, the Internet of Things will become a reality, and household IoT needs a computing center to connect all devices to serve family members automatically, according to Peng Xiandong, general manager of the consumer electronics division at China Market Monitor Co., Ltd.

TV sets or other big screens are the most likely to be the center of edge computing in a household network, Peng added. 

As the mobile phone market becomes increasingly saturated, many smartphone makers are venturing into the TV industry to expand the business scope. 

But numerous challenges exist as TV and smartphone industries have vast differences in ecological chain, supply chain and operating strategies, said Zhang Hong, research director of the TV industry chain at consulting firm Sigmaintell. In addition, how to grab share from traditional TV brands in the saturated market and keep the TV business profitable will be a severe test, Zhang noted.  

 

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn

Editor: Lan Suying