Hisense VIDAA TV to Become Available in the United States

QINGDAO, China, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hisense announced at CES on January 6th that the company will officially roll out VIDAA TV, an Internet-based television set, in the North American market in March through the company's main distribution channels in the United States.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140107/CN39882 )

"Smart TVs will offer Hisense an opportunity to achieve its goal of being among the world's top three TV brand," said Lin Lan, Vice President at Hisense International. His reasoning is based on market research indicating that the household penetration rate of Smart TVs in the United States has only reached 20%. The low penetration rate is due to the complicated operations and functions from other Smart TV sets, making the large slice of the U.S. population who do not consider themselves tech-savvy averse to choosing them. The same market research shows 45% of American households plan to buy TV sets; in two years, 42% of those purchases will be Smart TVs. "This is an opportunity for us. So far, no easy-to-operate Smart TV sets have made its appearance in the American market, and Apple has not yet launched its product. Any technology that is problematic for the vast majority of users is certainly not well-conceived. The benefit of VIDAA is that it is easy-to-use, a major selling point in the U.S. market," stated by Lin. He also emphasized that he has high expectations in terms of VIDAA TV's market performance.

The Hisense VIDAA TV displayed at CES features four basic function keys, allowing for a quick and seamless switch between live TV and Internet video. The technology was developed by the Canadian based team acquired by Hisense. "The innovative technology behind VIDAA TV focuses on intelligent yet simple human-computer interaction, and is the result of Hisense's innovative thinking about the Internet. This price-competitive product will help the company to rapidly build and expand its presence in the U.S. market," said Chris Tyghe, Marketing Manager at Hisense.

VIDAA TV has been widely accepted by consumers across China with sales already exceeding 1 million within eight months since its release. Over 95% of VIDAA TV buyers have activated VIDAA's Internet services with Internet service usage level via VIDAA TV above 95%.

At CES, Hisense will also launch its cost-competitive laser TV with plans to make the product available soon worldwide.