Samsung says iTV cannot compete because TV is about picture quality

With Apple and Samsung caught up in ongoing patent disputes worldwide for various smartphone and tablet devices, the proposition of an Apple-branded HDTV would have Samsung once again defending its market share from Apple. This time it is in the living room—a market Samsung largely dominates. However, if you ask Samsung’s AV Product Manager Chris Moseley, Apple is not ready to compete with his company’s experience as a TV manufacturer, specifically when it comes to picture quality. Moseley talked to Pocket-lint in Prague at a Samsung press event:

“We’ve not seen what they’ve done but what we can say is that they don’t have 10,000 people in R&D in the vision category… They don’t have the best scaling engine in the world and they don’t have world renowned picture quality that has been awarded more than anyone else…TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality… So, from that perspective, it’s not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they’re going to come out with, if anything.”

While Moseley is quick to discuss picture quality and R&D, Apple of course gets the majority of its displays from Samsung, or LG, who makes the iPhone and iPod touch Retina Displays and introduced a 55-inch OLED HDTV that we said is good enough for an Apple television. LG also made panels for Apple’s Thunderbolt Displays and the 27-inch iMac display stemming from a $500 million dollar investment in LG displays. Reports in July claimed Apple was in discussions with LG about a 55 LG OLED panel that LG scheduled to begin full production in late 2012.

Brian Ford at Newsvine (via DaringFireball) compared Moseley’s comments to remarks made by Palm CEO Ed Colligan’s in 2006 on Apple’s ability to dominate the smartphone market:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”