"The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little."
- Ray Bradbury -
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Intel Internet TV PDF Print E-mail
Written by D. Eric Franks   
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 10:35

Intel continued to push its convergence WebTV, erm, Internet TV devices on Monday, claiming that what consumers really want is more interaction with their televisions. Haven't we heard this somewhere before?

While I don't doubt that "convergence" is inevitable (even though no one uses that decade-old word anymore), I think the idea that people want the Internet on the living room television is misguided. People want to watch TV and if it also happens to support a little extra info or allow you to order a pizza AND it doesn't get in the way, then, what the heck? Sure!

But to think that people want to have a keyboard in their living room or even another remote control or want to have a social interaction with their friends while watching syndicated re-runs of Friends is, well, strange. Social networking + television? Really? Has anyone done any market research to see whether people want this or are these companies just developing these devices because they can?

It reminds me of the video phone: all of this technology is here, now, and inexpensive, but it's clear no one wants it. Whether you call it WebTV or Microsoft Windows Media Center or the Yahoo/Intel "Widget Channel" (yes, that's what they are calling it), people want to engage and interact with computers, the Internet, facebook and game consoles, but they just want to watch TV. CES 2009 is almost here, so I expect to see another round of exciting convergence devices in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!

References:
* Intel to Show Devices That Bring Internet to TV, PCWorld, Dec. 15, 2008
* "We Love TV", videopia.org, Aug. 22, 2008

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