Dubai: Future smart televisions will integrate hardware and software further to create a more user-friendly interface, Michele Reitz, senior research analyst at semiconductor and electronics division at Gartner, told Gulf News.
She said that improvements may include central processing unit, graphics or images processing unit, set-top box functionality and full range of networking options integrating into the television.
Many people are using their tablets and smartphones to watch content due to the growth in app development.
Smart TVs have fewer apps than tablets and smartphones and the reason cited by Reitz is that it is due to the fragmentation in the market and different custom operating systems and user interfaces on different TVs when compared to smartphones.
“In the smartphone race, it is either the Apple iOS or Android. When the TV makers adopt one of the standards then consumers can definitely see a growth in TV app development,” Reitz said.
Also, she said that TVs are much slower moving than smartphones and tablets. The TV is replaced every seven years.
According to a study conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab, around 72 per cent use mobile devices to watch video at least weekly, and 42 per cent of them do so outside the home. 75 per cent of people multi-task by using mobile devices while watching TV.
“Individual users will watch it on tablets or smartphones depending on the time and where they are. Tablet prices have come down and you get a good tablet for $100 [Dh367],” Sweta Dash, senior director for display research at HIS, said.
She said that watching media content on tablets and smartphones is no substitute for watching TVs.
“Consumers watch it on tablets and smartphones because of convenience. Group watching will happen only on big-sized TVs and the experience is totally different,” Dash said.
Reitz supported this by saying that a family will watch programmes in the living room only on TVs but a single person will watch it either on a smartphone or a tablet.
Just like books and music moving to the cloud, the TV industry is also taking baby steps toward the cloud.
“Cloud TV means the contents and processing of the images is done inside the cloud. Consumers are getting their contents delivered as a video stream directly to their displays. All the data will stay in the cloud,” Reitz said.
She said that cloud TV is being considered by many TV manufacturers and around four are already working in that area, but it will take time to get it delivered.
