Android week: The Web and TV marriage: Google TV
A few years ago I used to work for Belgium’s biggest commercial broadcaster. In my last year there (now 7 years ago) I investigated interactive TV. I was pretty disappointed to see what was available at that time. Almost 5 years ago my local cable operator (Telenet) launched interactive digital TV in Belgium and I was still disappointed. While their set-top box is connected to the web, it only uses it to “call home” when you order VOD content. Ooh… and you can read your email on it…
A few weeks ago, Telenet updated their set-top box UI… And I was still disappointed. Telenet is in a unique position. They are already in my house with an Internet connected STB that is connected to my big screen TV. This is where I want to see my web content. When I search for my favorite TV show, I want to see when it plays on my favorite TV channels but I also want it to show me related web content from YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, … When I browse their VOD content, I want to read other people’s reviews from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Twitter, … That is what I want from my digital tv… And Google just launched it at Google I/O. Google TV is exactly what I want to see on my TV… It’s 2010 for God’s sake! Unfortunately I live in Belgium and I probably will not see Google TV any time soon…
Here’s a demo of Google TV recorded by the Adobe TV team. Oh… And before I forget: Google TV runs Flash Player 10.1 and AIR!
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The STB is becoming a real computer… that’s indeed something we wanted years ago. But I know, as well as you, that it was -more or less- available 5 years ago, with Flash support. Although sadly enough, they never introduced the product for us, geeks, because of different platform and business strategies @Telenet.
Anyways, not only the STB gets more computing power. It now seems that every small device, like a smartphone, digital camera, MP3 player, etc… has more computing power than my first PC. That also raises the question where all the extra computing power has gone into, no? :)
But I think we are not far away from the “one device does all” computer. Take the core computing power always with you and change the peripherals to your needs. That brings me to my conclusion: in the future, multiple devices will become one, so all devices will run Flash.
Wow! But, the user need a mouse, isn’t?