Samsung's Concept Store at Robinsons Magnolia

My very first trek to the newly opened Robinsons Magnolia mall in Quezon City was for the launch of Samsung's concept store.

With Odette Velarde of Samsung and friend Noemi Dado

Celebrities at the ribbon cutting ceremony

A Peek inside the Concept Store

The Samsung Concept Store is located on the al fresco area of the mall on the 3rd floor. At first, Noemi and I got lost and thought the Samsung store inside the mall on the same level was it. Apparently that one was just for mobile phones.

Upon entering the store, we found that it contained all the appliances one would need for the home. We saw the inverter airconditioners, washing machines and refrigerators which we had previously seen up close in another event. My post on that is HERE.

But the star of the event on that launch was Samsung's series of Smart TVs for 2012.

The Samsung plasma TV sets

These TV product offerings center around 3 'Smart' pillars: Smart Interaction, Smart Content and Smart Evolution.

Smart Interaction

Why even use a remote? Many times, I get frustrated looking for the remote especially when someone does not put it back in its place. With the Smart Interaction technology, the TV set itself detects your hand. There are no more boundaries between the TV screen and you. Motion Control, Voice Control and Face Recognition technology let you turn the TV on or off, select apps to activate, or search and select web content -- all without having to use a remote.

The LED 8000 series, the 7500 series and the Plasma E8000 series of the Samsung Smart TVs has the Smart Interaction feature. They feature a built-in camera that can recognize movement as well as two microphones which can recognize voice.

Play Angry Birds with your hands

Celebrities having fun playing Angry Birds

Smart Content

While Samsung's Smart TVs have already been providing premium content through over 1,500 apps worldwide, in 2012 it is taking that a step further by providing a Smart Hub, a simple user interface (UI) in full HD. Through AllShare Play, Samsung allows content to be pulled in from a Smart TV or mobile device or manually pushed out to the cloud, regardless of a user's location.

Smart Evolution

Samsung is proud to be the only electronics company worldwide to offer Smart Evolution. This feature is available on select Samsung Smart TVs and really addresses the obsolescence issue. Many times, we buy a TV only for a new model and feature to come out soon after. With the Smart Evolution feature, the select TV sets have a Samsung Evolution Kit. A simple slot-in at the back lets consumers keep up with newer introductions of both hardware and software without the need to go out and bu a new TV set. You can potentially keep up-to-date by just "slotting in" the new features using Samsung's proprietary system-on-chip technology. That is just so cost-effective!

Samsung is really upping the bar when it comes to designing and innovating on products, incorporating technology not for tech's sake but so it could make life that much easier for us, the consumers. One day, it will be truly bye-bye, remote.