Vizio Enters Mobile Markets As A New Player

Low-priced television maker Vizio is aggressively set to enter the mobile- market with an ‎Android-based smart-phone and tablet, as an effort to offer entertainment freedom for all. ‎One such product , the Via Tablet, with an 8-inch, high-resolution display; offers WiFi ‎connectivity; and comes with a front-facing camera for video conferencing and three ‎speakers.‎

The smart-phone, called the Via Phone, has a 4-inch display, a back end-facing, 5-‎megapixel camera with video capabilities and a front-facing camera for video calls. Both ‎devices feature HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) ports, operate on Android ‎and would be available from summer.‎

The company is offering comparable devices at significantly lower prices, as it has in the ‎television world. The company has fewer than 500 employees and ships more LCD TVs ‎worldwide than its competitors. Vizio developed the products with a team of fewer than ‎‎10 people and specialists hired from Nokia.‎

The devices would be available at Wal-Mart and Costco stores. There’s a huge gap in the ‎market for people who can’t afford the iPad and the devices will be aggressively priced. ‎Vizio also plans to introduce three-dimensional televisions with price tags starting below ‎‎$300. A nearly identical interface would be available on the phone, tablet, TVs and Blu-‎ray players.‎

The Via Tablet and Via Phone would act as remote controls for other consumer-‎electronics devices, including all Vizio products. Via Plus Internet service, would offer ‎access to applications such as Netflix, the Android Market and Facebook. Vizio on ‎Demand, a new service that enables users to watch a movie on one device and watch ‎another on an another device, is also being launched.‎