Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On , a column about consumer technology.
“Don’t throw the past away. You would possibly need it some rainy day.”
-Peter Allen, from the song “Everything Old Is New Again”
During the late ’90s and early ’00s, the hype bubble grew large a couple of choice of ideas that never reached critical mass. WebTV was going to democratize the net, however devolved right into a market niche after being acquired by Microsoft. WiFi providers equivalent to MobileStar and later Cometa Networks hoped to construct vast WiFi networks that could compete with cellular plans. Those bubbles popped back inside the day, but curiously, companies are actually willing to pump some energy back into them. The question is whether or not they’re in any better position to drift this time around.
TV and the online. WebTV and its MSN TV successors faced various challenges seeking to create an internet experience on a common-definition television, and didn’t help their prospects much with a subscription model. Since those days, the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii have both implemented basic Web browsers, but now a brand new generation of TVs and add-on boxes are making the leap too, with Google TV-based devices from Logitech and Sony available in the market since last fall, and Samsung recently announcing that its new generation of smart TVs will include a whole Web browser. Today’s flat-panel HDTVs overcome the limited resolution and interlaced displays that challenged WebTV, and a number of the plug-ins of that era have faded away on their lonesome, with Flash being the one modern sticking point.
Another distinction between today’s Web and that of WebTV is the flurry of video available to observe — enough content to inspire the creation of websites like Clicker simply to keep track of all of it. However, simply because the video is on the market would not mean that content companies want you to view it in your television screen, because the rash of businesses blocking access to their video content to browsers on TV — even if such content is freely available to any desktop PC. Also, Internet-delivered video has been a double-edged sword for internet TV adoption, as many makers are packaging up services comparable to Netflix and Hulu Plus as standalone services (or “TV apps”) that can substitute for Web-based video.
Input and user interface remains a challenge with few consumers wanting a whole-sized keyboard of their lounge. However, one of the most benefits of integration with the television (or popular add-on devices equivalent to Blu-ray players) is that manufacturers such are building integrated thumb keyboards into their remote controls, largely preserving the small form factor of those handheld devices in offerings from Samsung and Vizio. Google TV supports the software keyboards on mobile phones as an input method in addition.
Carriers and WiFi. Despite cellular networks becoming faster than ever, WiFi is fast becoming a regular feature of smartphones. The advantages include having the ability to control and transmit content to devices across the home — using methods equivalent to DLNA and AirPlay — however it’s also helpful for offloading internet traffic that could rather be applied towards one’s mobile phone bill. Many handsets now be capable to automatically switch to WiFi where it’s detected, which matches well in known hotspots similar to the only they might have at home, however the processes for buying onto free and paid public hotspots could be fraught with confusion, and infrequently risks, too.
On the CTIA Wireless expo last month, we saw two announcements that could serve to make that easier. Boingo , an organization that has long facilitated roaming across paid hotspots, will build support without spending a dime public hotspots into its software. And over the longer-term, the Wi-Fi Alliance has announced that it can be working with major cellular carriers on a brand new method that aims to make finding and purchasing hotspot networks owned by large carriers as transparent as cellular roaming is today (although presumably less expensive for international usage). Such streamlined WiFi roaming would get advantages customers visiting destinations both within their country in addition to outside of it. The drawback is that any such progam will take time, and naturally its success depends upon which of the key carriers support it, and the way quickly they make their move.
A better Switched On will discuss another traditionally contentious tech combination left for dead that at the very least one company is now willing to tackle anew.
Ross Rubin ( 0 @rossrubin 0 ) is executive director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm 1 The NPD Group 1 . Views expressed in Switched On are his own.
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