Samsung kicked off its annual Africa Forum with a press conference to showcase all the products that they will be rolling out across the continent in the coming months. Prior to a welcome address and official introduction by Samsung South Africa COO George Ferreira, members of the media were treated to a lightshow that encompassed the entire Cape Town City Hall auditorium.
Robert Ngeru, Samsung’s Commercial Director for East Africa introduced the latest line-up of televisions and spoke of what Samsung is doing differently for 2013. “Around 50-million televisions have been sold, so that means that one in every four television sets are a Samsung model,” he said during his address.
He also highlighted that a 100-million people make use of the Smart apps that reside on the Samsung televisions through the Smart Hub. “We have redesigned the Smart Hub from last year, and customers will now have the ability to do so much more and download a lot more variety”.
Samsung’s flagship model for 2013 is their ultra definition UDTV, which projects images that are four times that of normal 1080p definition. While ultra definition is nothing new, Samsung’s set makes use of a unique design that gives the illusion that the set is built into the frame. The set, residing in a matte black chassis, projects the 4K images in stunning 85” clarity, and Ngeru added that “the UDTV is not just a design and it’s mre than just a television”.
While no price was given for the respective markets, the UDTV will be made available throughout Africa in May.
On hand display in terms of smaller television sets, Samsung introduced the LED F8000. The unit will be made available in a number of sizes, which will go up all the way to 75”, and makes use of a quad-core processor. The set also comes pre-installed with Samsung’s Smart Hub, which has been updated for a new experience in 2013.
Strictly not a product, Samsung also show off new Evolution kits for 2012 Smart televisions. Users who bought new television sets last year, will now be able to buy an Evolution Kit to upgrade their current unit to all the upgrade software of the 2013 models.
Also under the spotlight were the electronics company’s latest model of fridges, home surround systems, monitors, audio docks and washing machines, as well as the latest Wi-Fi-only model of the Galaxy Camera, and the Galaxy Grand Duo smartphone, which features a dual-SIM function.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
