Qingdao, China – Tablets,
Android-based smart TVs and statistics underscoring the rapid growth of China’s
CE market captured the attention of attendees at SINOCES, where laptops mingled
with washing machines and personal grooming kits on the display floor.
Tablets put in their first
appearance at the show, with Chinese companies Lenovo and Haier showing their
first Android models for the China market. Haier has no current plans for U.S.
sales, but Lenovo plans an announcement next week to bring the device, or a
version of it, to the U.S> market.
Domestic laptop supplier Hasee
also showed a tablet, but company representatives didn’t know whether the product
would be sold in the U.S.
For its part, China-based Hisense
showed its first Android-based smart TVs, all with 3D technology. The company
plans to bring the TV technologies to the U.S. at an unspecified time as part
of an effort to move up-market in this country, Hisense executives told TWICE.
The Android TVs became available in China about three months ago.
Little information was available
about the new tablets, but a member of Haier’s engineering group said the Haier
Haipad features the Android 3.0 OS, which is optimized for tablets. It ships in
China in a month.
The Lenovo tablet, also Android-based, shipped
in China in April. Company literature show the Lenovo tablet features a
Qualcomm 1.3GHz processor, 10.1-inch screen, Flash 10.1, GPS and Wi-Fi 802.11
b/g/n. 3G-equipped versions feature 800/1900HMz CDMA 1x EV-DO Rev. A and
850/1900/21000MHz HSDPA technology, making them suitable for use in U.S. 3G
networks. The device also comes in 16GB and 32GB versions, and a laptop-like
docking station is available. Information on the tablet’s Android version was
unavailable.
As Chinese companies displayed
new products, Germany-based market-research company GfK Group reported
Chinese-market statistics to industry members at an industry summit during the
show. GfK said China’s share of the global CE market will grow from 10 percent
in 2008 to a projected 13 percent in 2011. The company also reported a 19
percent gain in 2010 global CE sales to $904 billion and projected a 6 percent
gain in 2011.
International companies putting
in an appearance include Siemens appliance group, Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba
and Microsoft, which appeared for the first time.
