Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest supplier of flat-screen TVs by shipments, said Sunday that it aims to sell 10 million units of smart TVs this year, about a two-fold increase from last year, hoping to notch a big win in the emerging TV segment.

 

The company plans to ramp up marketing to promote its smart TV during the Consumer Electronics Show slated to open on Thursday in Las Vegas, United States, it said.

"The CES 2011 will be dominated by contests of smart TVs," a company official said.

Though Samsung is yet to unveil its smart TV sales tally last year, industry sources estimate that Samsung has shipped nearly 5 million units of its smart TV, which merges Internet and television.

Samsung's sales target represents one third of the global smart TV market in 2011, which is expected to reach 30 million units, according to industry data.

According to market researcher DisplaySearch, the global market for connected TV, an umbrella term that includes smart TVs and other Web-connected TVs, is forecast to grow to 67 million units this year, from 40 million last year.

Other TV makers, such as Sony Corp. and LG Electronics Inc., are also counting on the smart TVs to fuel demand growth and to revive falling TV prices, expecting that more consumers will want to bring content from the Internet to their living room. The global search giant Google Inc., an increasingly important player in the mobile industry and consumer electronics, is another key player in the smart TV market. 

Samsung has reached out to legions of content providers in various regions to build a pool of regional applications and other content on its smart TVs. (Yonhap News)