You might have read my comments in Murad Ahmed’s article in The Times today about how the time for interactive TVs have finally arrived. See CES showcases gadgets and gizmos for 2012. For those not able to get behind the paywall:
Mr Holway said that he expected manufacturers to also push “connected” televisions at the event - devices with internet connections, that may even respond to spoken commands and hand gestures. A number of devices running on Google TV, a system created by the search company, from manufacturers such as LG are expected to be unveiled.
“The integrated television is not new, but undoubtedly its time has come,” he said. “The trouble is we’ve been predicting it for so long. Far more of our television watching is over the internet. To have it all together on one device, for example, to have my phone as my controller, and to have all my videos up “in the cloud”, available on any device to watch - that is hugely appealing.”
I happen to believe that ‘Connected/integratedTVs’ will be a significant ‘Next Big Thing’. Interesting therefore that ARM – rather than Intel – is gearing up for this. ARM has an enviable record of ‘being in the right place at the right time’ with its low energy products – think mobile phones, iPod, IPhones, iPads. Google TV announced yesterday is to use ARM rather than Intel for its set top boxes. Intel uses too much power and therefore needs a fan to cool it. Can be a bit irritating during those quiet bits in films!
Conversely, Intel and Microsoft are hoping that ultra light laptops will be their NBT. Although I was a great fan of my Panasonic Toughbook – which weighed c1.1kg – many years ago, I don’t carry my laptop with me whilst travelling anymore. My iPad does everything I want. Sure I have a desktop here in my home/office for the serious work stuff. But I’d never swap that for an ultra light laptop. Maybe my work/play patterns are different to others?
But, assuming they are not too much awry, it looks like ARM is yet again backing the right horse whereas Intel might be the ‘also ran’ again. Indeed even Microsoft is backing ARM for its Windows 8 OS.