Korean-born Daum smart TV to rival Apple, Google, Samsung devices

The buzz (and sales) around smart TVs ain’t great. So it makes perfect sense to plop another into the market. Enter the Daum smart TV, a device created by Korea’s second most popular search engine. What can Daum offer smart TV buyers? Let’s take a look.

It streams

“We have concluded that the killer service for smart TVs should be video streaming and that’s an area where Daum has spent years accumulating technology and experience,” says Daum’s corporate strategy director Kim Jee-hyun. All smart TVs can live-stream online footage, so what makes Daum’s effort so different? The Korean site which unveiled the product has no answers, leaving us to take a stab at a guess: that Korean internet is 200 times faster than even the US’, therefore online streaming is a piece of cake.

It’s multi-talented

“Amid lukewarm reviews of Google TV and Apple TV, we had long studied to identify different values we can offer consumers,” says Jee-hyun. Alongside the TV, Daum will launch a Gingerbread powered set-top box named the Daum TV+. The device is said to be “sleek” and “tiny”. Users will be able to download Android apps, enjoy online games and search the web.

It’s priced right

At 199,000 won (US$200), Daum TV will go on sale 30 April. Jee-hyun continues, “Compared to expensive TV sets, our cheaper set-top box would be a better bet for those just getting into Web TV.” Korea plans to transition into pure digital TV signals by 2013, the Daum TV hopes to capitalise on this.

Come the end of April, we’ll see if this product can make any meaninful impact on the smart TV market.

Image: Koreahereld.com