LAS VEGAS —
Partnerships and bringing a level of
humanism to consumer technology were the focus of
Samsung’s Boo-Keun Yoon’s keynote during International
CES.
Yoon, president of Samsung’s visual display business,
invited a bevy of CEOs to his stage to discuss
how their companies are working to not only make Samsung’s
wide variety of products more interactive, but to
bring about what he called a level of “human digitalism.”
On the content-delivery side of the business, Yoon
had Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Time Warner
CEO Glenn Britt discuss how their companies were
helping bring content to products beyond the TV.
Each gave a brief demonstration of their programming
playing on a Galaxy Tab via an app.
“We’re radically changing how consumers interact
with their televisions, whether they are watching on a
big screen or small screen,” Roberts said.
Britt said Time Warner has worked with Samsung
to develop TVs that will use a subscription
service to show cable content without the need for
a set-top box.
Jason Kilar, Hulu’s CEO, came on stage to say Hulu’s
partnership will result in Hulu Plus programming
becoming available on Samsung Android phones in
the near future.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen spoke of the importance
of including Flash capability on Smart TVs,
so users can enjoy a full web experience. Toward
this end, Yoon said this collaboration will result in
Samsung TVs supporting Flash.
The final CEO on hand was DreamWorks’ Jeffery
Katzenberg.
He said his animation studio exclusively uses Samsung
TVs in its work and that Samsung and Dream-
Works are extending their relationship to allow Samsung
to use certain DreamWorks characters in its
upcoming marketing programs.
In addition, some DreamWorks engineers will work
directly with Samsung to create a better product, with
particular interest being paid to 3D, Katzenberg said.
