Vamsi Sitla, director of broadband and multimedia research for ABI Research, thinks that the need for differentiation in the HDTV industry will lead to much greater intelligence, either inside televisions or in the devices connected to them.
Quoted in a release today from ABI, "No Longer the 'Boob Tube': ABI Research Looks at Smart TV," Sitla sees within the industry two schools of thought about smarter TVs:
1. "One camp wants to focus on creating intelligence within the TV itself, making it network-ready, and incorporating storage or recording devices." Sitla cites LG Electronics, which is now incorporating digital video recorders into some of its LCD TVs.
2. "The other camp wants to focus intelligence in the devices which surround the TV and connect to it: Media Center PCs, recorders, residential gateways and the like." Sitla says this camp would prefer keeping the TV as more of a "dumb terminal" while upgrading and replacing the surrounding devices.
This connects somewhat with an idea I've had recently that convergence might be taking technology toward a world in which consumers will have a growing number of powerful multi-capable platforms that can do a lot of things for them. Think Windows, Mac and Linux. But also add Google, Appforce, iPod and the home media center. (Will have to expand on this idea in another entry.)
Discussing the HDTV market, ABI's release says that "including HDTVs, personal video recorders, DVD players, game consoles and set-top boxes (STBs), the global market for HDTV products should exceed US$25 billion this year."
AB -- 1/26/06
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