Smart TV is the big story to come from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The big tech companies are hailing smart TV as the next major consumer trend to be taking over our living rooms.
Such declarations are treated with a healthy dose of scepticism and eye-rolling from the tech community – remember 2011’s breathless declarations that 3D TV was the future? As Wired rightly asked: “does anyone actually own a 3D TV?”
Trend predictions can go (badly) wrong, but it seems as if Smart TV is making big enough waves to start taking it seriously. Now is a good time to start asking: “what is Smart TV all about?”
At the simplest level, smart TV is connected TV – meaning televisions that can connect to the internet and work harmoniously with other devices like phones, tablets and computers.
Samsung invented Smart TV back in 2008 and have since been joined by LG, Sony and Lenovo in the race to get connected TV onto our radar and into our homes. Even Google have attempted (and failed) to get our TVs online.
Product differentiation has always been a tricky one for TV manufacturers – until now it has been, pretty much, a matter of who makes the thinnest or the clearest – ideally a combination of both. Connected TV has opened up a host of new USPs for brands to tap into, especially in terms of apps and interfaces.
Samsung launched the first Smart TV app store and now offers over 1,400 apps. The Smart Hub interface (pictured above) allows users to customise their TV’s functionality by downloading and installing apps such as Netflix, iPlayer and Rightmove. They are expecting to hit the 15 million app download mark by the end of January 2012. They have also tapped into the trend for “tweet-a-long TV” with their Social TV feature – a split screen option that allows the user to follow social media action throughout their favourite TV programmes.
2012 is the year that Samsung will make their big bid for connected TV dominance, with the launch of their new TVs that incorporate Super OLED screen technology, upgrade slots, voice control and HD webcams.
Yet Samsung will face stiff competition from newer arrivals on the connected TV stage. And the competition isn’t only from other TV manufacturers. Whilst Google TV got off to a shaky start, Google are still keen to stake a claim on the connected TV crown. LG have launched a Smart TV rangebuilt around Google TV and their Android operating system is already powering a number of smart TVs made by major manufacturers like Lenovo.
Then there is Apple; rumours of an Apple TV set have been swirling amongst fans and bloggers for months now. Regardless of whether they prove to be true or not, the speculation and excitement suggests that it would be warmly welcomed into this crowded marketplace.
Apple would have the design cachet, there’s no denying, but what about Sony? It looks like they are relying on their unprecedented and exclusive access to premium content from across their multiple media platforms – which could prove to be a risky move.
Then there’s the possibility that the “second screen” is what the consumer is really interested in. Do you really want to share your hard earned screen real estate with a twitter app? Do you want your TV viewing to be distracted by a weather update? Do you really need to play Angry Birds on your television? Smart phones and tablets do all of these things so well already.
Maybe the manufacturers have got it all back to front. The future may well lie in TVs that are able to send additional content and information to our phones or tablets; freeing us from the sofa and allowing us to watch when and where we want. It would be great to see TVs with a built in personal video recorder, allowing remote access to recordings via a mobile app in the style of Slingbox.
Only time will tell if the future of TV is truly smart. One thing is for certain: we’re going to be hearing a lot more about them in 2012.
Jen Evans is a journalist specialising in culture. She likes lots of other stuff too. You can find more of her eclectic ramblings on her blog, Bookish Brunette or on twitter where she is known as @bookishbrunette.