During the IFA Messe Samsung, Panasonic and Philips provided further details on their Internet-connected TV products. Enabling Internet services and developing network awareness is seen as the next big thing for most consumer electronics vendors around the world.
Samsung announced TVs using its Infolive Internet TV service, Panasonic showed Vieracast-enabled TVs, while Philips provided further information on its CE-HTML TVs, following the completion of the trials in The Netherlands.
However, vendors stand a great chance of failure with these products due to the complexity of the products and services. Premonvision advises consumer electronics vendors that target this market to:
1.Keep the platform independent of hardware. This ensures that the platform is constantly developed and is up-to-date. The hardware platforms can therefore access new and relevant services when available. Internet services should be developed on a corporate level, not as product specific.
2.Do not create a proprietary Internet service platform. This will only confuse consumers and deter service providers from developing for the platform. Work with other vendors to create a vendor independent service platform. There are not competing standards for broadcast TV amongst the TV set vendors, why should Internet services be any different?
3.Learn from Facebook Apps and Iphone Apps; release easy-to-use and low/no cost SDKs and APIs. Encourage (hobby) developers by creating a business environment that provides financial incentives to develop for the platform.
4.Lastly, let the end users around the world choose the services; not the executives back in head quarters.
These simple guidelines should increase the likelihood of success. However they will not be easy to implement, as consumer electronics vendors are typically hardware focused while they are now venturing into the software, application and services, which are widely different market places.
