NETGEAR (NTGR) today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas introduced a flurry of new products, including an Internet TV set-top, an HD receiver and a mobile AP. The gear falls under what the company refers to as its Connected Lifestyles strategy.
The NETGEAR Internet TV Player, which will sell for $199 starting this summer, is targeted at “Internet families” according to Vivek Pathela, vice president and general manager of consumer products, who noted that last year there were 150 million unique Internet videos in the U.S. alone. “That’s a huge amount,” he said.
The size of a compact purse, the Internet TV Player enables users to access from their TVs YouTube, Internet video from “hundreds of popular sites,” and on-demand services including CinemaNow. “We’re not just limited to the YouTube experience,” said Pathela.
In mentioning that, Pathela may have been comparing the NETGEAR box’s functionality to Apple TV, which is limited to accessing Internet video only from YouTube and iTunes. However, the more expensive Apple TV also allows users to enjoy and share music, videos and photos among their televisions, iPods, iPhones and Apple computers, offering an integrated experience and the ability to view content on the user’s device of choice. From a visual perspective, the two products and the GUIs they present on TV screens are very similar.
Also announced today by NETGEAR was the Digital Entertainer Elite, which delivers up to Blu-Ray-quality video, and can store and stream thousands of videos. It offers 500gb of hard disk drive and can be upgraded to a terabyte or larger.
“This is the big kahuna,” said Pathela, who said this $399 box is targeted at serious media enthusiasts.
The third new product NETGEAR highlighted today during its CES press conference was the NETEAR 3G Mobile Broadband Router, which employs 3G and Wi-Fi technologies.
Aimed at “people on the go,” this solution “enables a hotspot on the fly.” He said it is suitable for campers, emergency rescue workers, construction site employees, tailgaters and others. It’s available starting this month for $129.
NETGEAR said these are just three of 15 new products it’s introducing this week at CES.
