Vizio, which with Wal-Mart moved the US market to 42-inch HD sets under $1,000, is aiming to take the lead in TVs that are not just Internet-enabled, but Internet-smart, ready to access thousands of movies and millions of songs with a single remote.
Its Vizio Internet Apps (VIA) service has picked up some major new services, a suite that makes the TV set itself look like a better-connected system than a Windows Media Server, TiVo or just about any other set-top box. It also boasts content partners who cover everything from streaming movies and TV shows to fantasy sports and checking e-mail.
Content partners for Vizio now include Amazon on Demand with 500 HD movies and 40,000 SD movies; Netflix with 12,000 streaming titles; VUDU with 14,000 SD movies and TV shows and 1,500 HD films; Blockbuster on Demand, roughly 10,000 SD titles; Showtime; Revision 3, user driven content and Rallypoint Sports. Along with music from Pandora, Rhapsody and Radiotime.
Vizio also has links into popular web sites from Flickr, eBay, Facebook, Twitter and Accedo Broadband.
A better list of content partners for any piece of consumer electronics, especially a TV set, is nigh impossible to find. These services are a mix of free, subscription and pay-per-use, meaning the set will appeal to a wide range of users and wallets.
All these services on Vizio are powered by the Yahoo TV Widgets engine, so there are other services on the Yahoo Widgets platform that could be added and incorporated before the sets are available. The platform supports both Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight.
Lucas Mast of Yahoo’s Widgets said users “can customize their experience in the Widget Gallery, so if any widget falls out of favor, you can simply delete it, much like you would on the iPhone.”
Mast also said Yahoo aims to have 100 widgets available on its platform by the end of the year. As this gets more mainstream, the platform could look more and more like an app store, where users can pick and choose from a wide variety and where anyone can make an app.
VIA-connected HDTV sets connect through either an 802.11n Wi-Fi connection or a built-in Ethernet port. The set’s remote has a built-in keyboard, which means all of these services should function well without any additional hardware.
Vizio announced the first three sets that will feature these VIA offerings and said they will hit the market before the end of the year. All the sets are part of Vizio’s XVT line.
The first two models use LCD screens with LED backlighting and have 240HZ refresh rates. The VF552XVT is a 55-inch set that’s expected to retail for under $2,200 and be available in December. The SV472XVT is a 47-inch set that will be available in October for under $1,700. The final announced VIA set is the SV422XVT, a 42-inch model that does not have the LED backlighting and has a refresh rate of 120Hz. It will retail for under $1,200 and be available in November.
Since 2007, Vizio HDTV shipments have been ranked near the top in the US, and it was No. 1 in Q1 2009 with over 20% market share.
Vizio first found major success with Wal-Mart when the two dropped HDTV sets below the $1,000 price point in 2006 on “Black Friday” – the post-Thanksgiving sales blitz and unofficial start of the US holiday shopping season.
Because of this low-price beginning and its continued relationship with Wal-Mart, Vizio is often thought of as a low- to mid-tier brand, but everyone can put that notion aside as of now. Not only has Vizio captured a large share of the market by making its products available at low-price retailers like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Target and Costco, it will likely bring this top-of-the-line set to those same retailers.
In the US, the electronics retailer Best Buy is now even running HDTV commercials directly targeting Wal-Mart and its customers – noting that it carries the same brands as Wal-Mart.
Yahoo has announced partnerships with Samsung, Sony, LG and Vizio to put its widget engine on their TV sets, so this market is going to get crowded, fast.
The real success or failure of these sets will come a few months down the road when the holiday shopping season begins. Consumers will face the choice of buying a new set or a set-top box that provides much of the same content and functionality. This will be a tough hill to climb for the set makers, especially when the $99 Roku box already offers a lot of these services, plus some extras like YouTube.
There’s also not likely to be a large initial uptake, as most people aren’t looking to replace HDTV sets that are only a year or two old and the current economic situation will keep some willing parties from being able to upgrade. As more and more sets come to market with Yahoo’s Widgets engine or other Net-enabled platforms, the problem of differentiation is going to arise. The Vizio partners are on board through Yahoo’s system, which means the other three leading TV makers joining with Yahoo will likely have access to the same content – though some exclusive deals are likely down the road.
If that’s the case, Vizio has a great track record for leading the market through the balance it strikes between price and device. The future of TV starts in October when the first TVs of the future become available.