[opendtv] Re: Smart TV design
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 13:17:27 -0500
At 10:34 PM +0000 3/4/13, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
If GoogleTV had allowed use of any search engine, users get to
choose, just like on a PC, do you think that the congloms would have
blocked it? What do you think the congloms' objection was?
Yes. The congloms do not want any device connected to a TV to work
outside their walled gardens.
You as much as confirmed this with the TV Week article you posted.
So, another obvious impediment. Whenever you see collusion, you can
expect substandard products to emerge. So, this is what I've been
trying to get across. No choice as to search engine, scant choice of
Internet sites, a recipe for disaster. Products that neither the
congloms nor the customers could possibly rave about.
I do not see this as an impediment, or collusion. In order for new
sources of content like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and iTunes to work,
you need devices that can act as front end for these stores. Apple,
Amazon and Netflix are licensing the content and placing it in a
store; I do not see why it would be inappropriate for the companies
that are making the devices that connect to your TV (or are inside)
to get a cut in the transaction they are enabling.
A keyboard and mouse are NOT what consumers are looking for to
control their TVs.
TV users have been used to remotes for multiple decades now. A
remote mouse is just like a remote control, and could even be
fashioned into a something more similar. E.g. with arrows to make
the bug jump between links. I find that silly, but just sayin'.
TV remotes are brain dead. They are a big part of the problem. A
mouse is just a pointing device; by the way most devices like Roku
and Apple TV come with a wireless pointing device, not unlike a Wi
game controller.
We will continue to disagree about the suitability of a keyboard and
mouse as the UI for a TV.
The market is moving on to a touch based UI. Small tablets are now
below $200, with limited capability devices like the Kindle reader
for less than $100. But the reality is that the devices that will
control your TV in the future will be "FREE." Not "FREE" as in given
away, but "FREE" like broadcast TV. You simply will pay for them in
another way, as we pay for broadcast TV at the checkout counter or in
our MVPD subscriptions.
In the case of your TV, you will likely control it via a device you
already own, like a smart phone, or tablet.
The notion that people would get up and walk to the TV once again,
to swipe the screen, is ridiculous. The notion that you must depend
on a remote control as expensive as the TV is equally inane, EVEN IF
that would be a simple option to offer.
Only you could even think of such an arcane interface. Then again,
before the '80s we all got up and walked to the TV to change
channels...
;-)
Where you are missing the big picture is that consumers are already
buying the devices that will control their TVs in HUGE quantities.
- In 2012 there were about 37 million TVs sold in the U.S. (a decline
over 2011)
- In 2012 there were about 127 million smartphones sold in the U.S.
A Pew Internet Project survey from Aug-Sept 2012 found 45% of US adults
owned a smartphone. The figure was 66% among 18-29 year-olds.
- In 2012 there were about 40 million tablets sold in the U.S. (about
30 million iPads).
Pew reports that 22%^ of adults in the U.S. now own a tablet.
That's more tablets than TVs Bert, and almost everyone who buys a
tablet watches OTT video on them.
My house - two smartphones and a tablet
My son - smartphone and tablet
My Daughter and her husband - 2 smartphones and two tablets
Do you see any kind of trend here Bert?
Regards
Craig
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