OnePlus, the Shenzhen, Guangdong-based smartphone maker set to enter the competitive global smart TV market in September, will deploy what it calls an "optimized" version of the Android TV operating system.
Speaking to Indian tech pub Gadget 360, OnePlus CEO Peter Lau said his company’s new TV’s will feature QLED displays and compete in the high end of the market. Amazon will be a major distribution hub for the insurgent brand, which will undercut the competition significantly on price.
“In terms of pricing, we want to benchmark against the most premium products available in the market, which means we are benchmarking against Samsung and Sony,” Lau said. “Because of the strategic partnership with Amazon, our price may be slightly cheaper than their [Sony and Samsung] products, but it won't be half the price.”
The use of Android TV as the primary interface is notable, given that the native operating system of the smart TV tends to be the dominant OTT ecosystem for the home. Currently, Roku and Amazon Fire TV are battling for supremacy in the smart TV interface market, but Android TV is emerging fast.
“One more key selling point that I want to highlight is that we are really optimizing the Android TV system, which I don't see a lot of brands in Indian market [doing],” Lab said” Because of our great partnership with Google, not only do we use their Android TV system but we also optimize it very deeply.”
