The Race To Be Your TV

Worry not. This is not the one-more-article reviewing the various TV products launched recently – Apple TV, Google TV and other already out there like TiVo.

A few years back somebody predicted that TV will die. Will it really? I say NO. At least not for the next 2 decades. Just see how much money is being put into TV – tens of billions of dollars. This is just the beginning! And none other is investing this money than Apple and Google just to name a few.

The question should be – Will Cable Die? I would say YES! The evidence is very simple – see the cable companies. Do they provide only TV cable to homes? No. They basically provide a fiber-optic cable, which can do a number of things besides cable TV. Do you sense something – Yes, it is called Transition. This may not be the paradigm shift but definitely it is a shift.

The time in the shift right now is critical, because the next few months or years will decide whether it actually is a shift or not. Lets not play the guessing game. The boom of number of TV products spell like a birth of a new era in TV history. This definitely is going to change the way we watch TV for a time being for sure.

Until now the TV used to define the type of content you viewed on it. If you wanted to watch a high definition, theatre experience movie you needed a TV like that. But now the content will define the type of TV you have. I am talking about the internet based TVs that will spring out in the market in the coming months. And believe me, a lot more companies will jump into this bandwagon shortly, because nobody wants to miss the show.

Think about this – Intel is investing billions for TV chipsets. Sony already has a Google TV Set out in the market that includes a HDTV itself and the Google TV product, which would stream the content from the internet.

The Era of Content

As I said above, the future of TV will be dictated by content. People will not just demand more content but also quality content, which can be tailored, to their needs. The market is too nascent at this stage to predict the right mix of the product. This is the time companies are trying a mix-n-match solution for their products, aiming or rather predicting the future based on their product mix. But definitely Content will be the King.

-iM

The war to be on your hands!

A lot of buzz is going around that Android has been gobbling the market share pie recently and denting a bit Apple’s share (Blackberry and Windows phones are being hit a big time though!). I do not even count the fourth and fifth pie shares holders – Windows and Symbian. Because they are not even close to the top three. Yes, I am not being too optimistic but, at least, in United States Symbian needs a lot of ground to cover before it can even be noticed in the pie chart. Good Luck Nokia! We will come back to Nokia and its strategy some time later, but right now lets emerge ourselves into the ongoing war – fight to grab the share of your hands!

Android and iOS (Apple’s operating system in its mobile devices like iPad, iPod and iPhone) are fighting fiercely to grab the lead in the market share. Blackberry makers RIM is not too far behind. Interestingly the top two spot holders – Android and iOS have been here for not more than three years and considering this they have made a good ground to be the top two.

The future belongs to mobile computing. That is for sure. Consider this – how rapidly the computing form factors have evolved in the last five years. Before 2007 when one mentioned about tablets, others would easily assume that he or she referred to the Windows computers that came with swivel screens and a touch-pen device for input. But iPhone and iPad changed that form factor forever. Others like Android followed the suit. Even people as visionary as the CEOs of Microsoft and Intel have ignored the tablet form factors as recently as yesterday. They went to extent of saying that tablets are not worth investing in R&D.

History Reapeats Itself –
The war to be in your room.

This reminds me of a war in the 1980s between Microsoft and Apple. I can write pages about that saga – Micrsoft vs Apple. But lets focus on Apple and Google right now. This time around Microsoft has been replaced by Google. Lot of things are comparable. First, Apple stays here – It is the constant. Isn’t this a remarkable achievement in itself. The previous war was fought to occupy the top spot in Personal Computing – to occupy the gadget spot on the table in your room. While this one is to be the numero-uno in mobile computing – to occupy the gadget space in your hands. I wonder if the next war is not fought to occupy the spot in your brains!

It is quiet difficult to predict the winner right now. This is just the beginning, this war is destined to last for longer than it predecessor, unless there is a dramatic outcome or one of the player dies prematurely (again, reminds me of the demise of Apple before the bloom in mid 1980s). Instead of predicting the outcome, enjoy the battle with me as I give you the updates.

-iM