It’s happening. While at CES today and yesterday, I spoke to two different manufacturers of HDTVs who plan to launch, or have already launched, televisions that are RSS enabled. In other words, the TV manufacturers are getting into the web content distribution business. Can you taste the convergence? I love the idea that my favorite RSS feeds might be running over traditional packaged goods content from the TV Networks, and there is nothing they can do to control it. I love the idea that we, as consumers, can take back control of the screen, and what is on it.
I only hope that the TV companies don’t try to pick what content I want to watch FOR me. Oh, wait, that’s what they are doing – Panasonic and Google are hooking up to connect Panasonic TVs with the Internet (Panasonic would be the third one, then, that is connected itself to the Web, and in essence, becoming a PC). Well, at least, YouTube and Picasa. I hope that’s not ALL we can connect to….
On a recent post you also mention the DataPortability efforts, another convergent trend, altough i suppose it relates more to what i enviosion as micro-privacy.
Microprivacy being a set of guidelines and formats implemented by online applications, allowing users to define levels of privacy and how their behavioral data is collected, on a portable and universal standard. Or in short: a creative commons for behavioral data.
But it sure is a tool for convergence (http://tinyurl.com/yo2ffa). What else ?.
At first, I was excited to read about the Panasonic-Google HDTV. Then, like you, I realized how *bad* this would be if they are trying to create a *walled* garden. I do feel sorry for HDTV manufacturers – they are all trying to differentiate in an age where LCD HDTV is almost commodity manufacturing.
I think the real gateway for Internet connected televisions will be the set-top box – with Cisco/Scientific Atlantic and Motorola leading the way.
Google has NOT given much details about its partnership with Panasonic. I cannot envision watching 320×240 pixels videos from Youtube on my large 50-inch DLP screen. Google certainly won’t allow bigger videos because it will cost it much more to go to say 640×480 – 4x more bandwidth. I don’t think that Google’s partnership will extend more than that, otherwise, Google might as well launch an Android for Television… Could THAT be a possibility?