Connected TV / Smart TV / IPTV , why the TV?

This article nails it!

What is the best way to get streaming content to your TV, read below and let me know if you agree.

JZ

Connected TVs face platform fragmentation as critical challenge

Michelle Clancy | 03-12-2012

Connected television is predicted to break into the mainstream soon with over 220 million smart TV sets set to be sold worldwide in 2017, up from the 54 million that will be sold this year, according to Informa Telecoms & Media's latest smart-TV device forecasts.
However, big obstacles in terms of platform fragmentation and replacement cycles will prevent the sets from commanding the centre point for the digital home any time soon.
These numbers are promising for apps developers and consumer electronics manufacturers, but the success is not going to be enough to overtake the lead that games consoles and media-streaming devices, including set-tops like Apple TV and Roku, have in the market, Informa predicts.
The researchers said that 31% of households worldwide will own at least one smart TV in five years' time, with household penetration much higher in North America (63%) and Western Europe (64%). However, with their long life cycles, TVs are simply not the right device to be the hub of the digital home, the company said.
"Informa estimates that in 2017 more than half of the 800 million smart TV sets by that time will only be used as dumb screens," said Andrew Ladbrook, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. "Moreover, while any 'smart' TV bought in 2011 or 2012 can be used for streaming online video services for a few years, they lack the processing power and the necessary hardware to perform those smart TV functions that will be standard in 2015. Simply put, any smart TV purchased in 2012 will be effectively obsolete by 2015."
Instead, devices that are regularly replaced, including smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, media streamers and games consoles, will be the key devices in the digital home experience. Smartphones in particular, with their short lifecycles and rapidly increasing processor power, will continue to define what 'smart' means, the analyst reasons.
The manufacturers' short-term support for their smart TV products will also prove a hindrance. New services will continue to be launched solely on the latest smart TV models – HBO GO, Skype, Onlive, BBC's Sport app – which means that users who bought last year's device are excluded. Apps cannot be easily released across multiple devices, since each smart TV platform demands bespoke development.
Thus, the fragmentation of platforms and standards continues to plague the smart TV market. This situation benefits the current market leaders Samsung and LG as they attract the top services first due to their strong positions. And, while Informa believes that Google TV or Android will come to be the default OS for smart TVs, this is still some years away.
"If TVs are going to be truly smart, they must do more than offer a wide variety of online video services," Ladbrook said. "Instead they must add advanced functionality including voice control, motion control, advanced advertising, attractive user interfaces and two-way communications with other smart devices – so-called 'second screens' – allowing these devices to send video to the TV and also know what is being watched. Manufacturers should focus less on adding more content and more on improving how users can interact with that content."

Mitsubishi drops out of consumer Television market

It did not seem that all that long ago I was selling a new 35" CRTV console Mitsubishi Television for over $4,000 dollars to customers in West Hartford, CT. I do find it to be a sad day to see another brand basically exit the TV market, and what that indicates for the future of Brand Choices in Televisions in the not too distant future. I even remember when 27" Tube TVs in stereo for Mitsubishi sold for almost $1,000. Then they shocked the industry by dropping tube tvs way before the end of CRT and went directly to Projection Televisions only. Bringing the world 50" plus size televisions so we could chase after that dream of bringing the Movie Screen big screen to our house. Those where the days (oh and people actually cared about quality audio with that setup as well back then). Can the industry correct itself? Well one more company has decided it can't. They will continue to drive Business to Business , Professional Video equipment, but for the consumer it is over. I wish Max and his group nothing but the best. Very happy to see them moving on within the group and the B2B business.

JZ

Mitsubishi Drops DLP Displays: Goodbye RPTVs Forever

A pioneer of big-screen rear projection TVs, Mitsubishi (MEVSA) was the last hold-out in DLP displays, and finally is discontinuing the line as part of a corporate restructuring.

So long, RPTV—the only big screen I’ve ever known. Meet my family and our 15 years of Mitsubishi in the slideshow below.

View this slideshow

By Julie Jacobson, December 01, 2012

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Mitsubishi Electric was the last hold-out in the rear projection TV (RPTV) business, and now the company is dropping the line, CE Pro has learned.
Mitsubishi Electrical Visual Solutions America, Inc. (MEVSA), the group in charge of the RPTV and other video product lines for both residential and commercial markets, has sent a letter to authorized service centers (reprinted below) indicating they are “discontinuing the manufacture of 73”, 82” and 92” DLP projection televisions.”
The memo, issued by MEVSA president and CEO Junichi Nose, indicates that the move is part of an “important change in business direction, which will necessitate a corresponding restructuring of the MEVSA organization.”
Nose says MEVSA will continue to be headquartered at its current Irvine, Calif., location and adds, “We expect that these changes will have a minimal effect on you and your business.”
Reached early this morning, Max Wasinger, long-time exec with Mitsubishi’s video products and currently executive vice president of sales and marketing for MEVSA, tells CE Pro, “We are in the midst of an orderly exit from the DLP TV business. MEVSA will now focus on B-to-B (projectors, display wall, printers, digital signage, monitors, etc.) and the home theater projector business.”

TV ANALYST SAYS ...
The microdisplay category had a great run and was really the first “thin” big-screen TV. Unit sales for the microdisplay RPTV category hit point of 2.2M units in 2006. The category remained significant thought 2007, and in 2008 shipments fell dramatically to a little over 500,000 from 1.3M in 2007. It was in 2008 that we really saw big-screen LCD TV take off, with sales of 52” models over 1.5M.
Recently, the category has remained relevant only in the size 70” and above, with 70” struggling as well this year. Volume for 2011 fell to 210,446 units and this year we are projecting sales flat or below. The rental channel was the category’s main supporter in recent years, but as large flat-screen manufacturing prices declined, the rental channel quickly moved to LCD TVs.—Tamaryn Pratt, principal, Quixel Research.

Wasinger will take on the position of executive vice president of sales for all Mitsubishi Professional Products and solutions. Frank De Martin, vice president of sales for MEVSA, is staying with the organization, Wasinger says