Towards the finest Smart TV via apps

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

Convergence On Demand

The different kinds of integration taking place in the Tech world are more than just branding or attempts to engage in media stunts.

We are witnessing a process which has happened before and that will certainly continue as technology evolves or as people get more used to efficiency, fast access to usable data, and ubiquity. 

In early 2000's we were talking about Convergence, and by that we meant having a platform or device that would put together TV, internet and telephony services. Nowadays, not only are such capabilities already covered by our smartphones or tablets, but today's Convergence is also looking into having the 'On Demand' label added as a nice bonus to these three venues: TV, internet and smartphone. 

One example of this is Youtube's new offering with coverage of the London 2012 Olympics, currently available via streaming, totalling 3500 hours of 10 separate live channels to the United States via NBCOlympics.com, and also accessible from 64 other coutries around the world. For some people, this kind of offer means an opportunity to have a global branding moment, but the idea is to actually go beyond that.  

This Olympics initiative is combined with several others by

Searching for the future e-commerce solution

2012 might very well confirm a drive towards what could amount to be a trending movement where different platforms could converge.

Keywords such as innovation and internationalization are more often becoming part of our vocabulary. The reason for this is that international markets are becoming a necessity, rather than an option, to fill up the gap left by the local options for companies to sell their products and services.

Similar to the convergence of internet, TV and phones into one device, a major

Facebook going into the Music business

Facebook is said to be teaming up with Spotify, Pandora and others in order to get into the Music industry.

The strategy would be for users to engage into streaming music and sharing it with their friends, as well as finding out what they are listening to, so they can all recommend their musical tastes among themselves. In other words, the same idea as