Leaving aside the otherwise relevant issue of improving TV content, in order to sell more sets, the TV manufacturing industry is imitating the smartphone evolution and is currently undergoing a process of introducing substantial app portfolio options in the form of widgets aimed at considerably improving the much clichéd viewer's experience.
Sony, Toshiba, LG or Samsung are some of the companies willing to go the extra mile in order to increase their market share. All of them, including other manufacturers, understandably, are trying to establish the standard for the future Smart TV.
Trying to take a leading role in that game, LG and the Smart TV Alliance initiative are offering answers to involve manufacturers, developers and solution providers by presenting them with a large selection of app options with the purpose of setting a standard for the industry.
Either emulating or not what Google TV, Apple TV and others are doing, the Smart TV Alliance is preparing version 2.0 of their Software Development Kit, which will be readily available to
developers and alliance members in 2013.
Just as it happened with mobile devices, and while it is becoming an everyday thing for tube consumers to enjoy and get used to apps of all sorts, TV set manufacturers are also beginning to compete in the app stage for their share as well as to stay alive.
This scenario is an inevitable consequence of the huge disruption internet has brought to the lives of consumers and manufacturers. Hopefully, this will also be translated into the much needed improvement of TV content, if it is not too much to ask for.
Copyright Esteban Dobronsky 2012 © All Rights Reserved
