Mar 15
William Shatner explains microprocessor technology in this AT&T produced video from the 1980. It’s cool to look back and see the predictions of the past. This video presentation is extremely well done and worth a watch, heck it’s Shatner!
Thanks to Engadget for the link.
Jason Calacanis is always controversial, and his PR recommendations for startups are sure to engender a reaction amongst PR professionals. While I won’t go as far as Jason in saying you should fire your PR company, I do think his recommendations are critical for execs in companies of any size. It’s also a very good idea to make sure your PR folks understand and follow these principles as they represent your company. Read more
As the hype builds for CES, the New York Times divides the competitors for your living room into three categories. The Incumbents like HBO already have a stake in America’s TV market. Latching on to them are the Extenders, who provide the actual devices to link up with your PC. Finally, the Straight Shooters bridge the gap with software.
Get ready: we’re about to hear a confusing array of new plans to bring the boundless realm of the Internet to the 83-year-old TV. The companies involved are taking one of three markedly different approaches. So before we head into the geeks’ version of Super Bowl week, let’s do a quick and dirty review of the three kinds of contenders.
The Incumbents: cable and satellite firms try to get hip.
They are the favorites in this battle to bring Internet-style choice to the TV. Not because companies like Comcast are great innovators (they’re not), but because their boxes already sit in millions of homes. But they have an Achilles heel: their sacred relationships with programmers. If Comcast were to allow customers to download any movie from the Web, HBO and Showtime would be furious. Expect them to move slowly, which opens the door for…The Extenders: sending video from the PC to the TV.
We can now download all this great video our PCs. But it really belongs on our TVs. What’s the answer? Send it from point A to point B. This is what Apple hopes to accomplish with its upcoming iTV, which Steve Jobs will unveil on Tuesday at Macworld. The biggest problem with this approach: it is indirect, and home networks are tough to set up. Apple might crack the code, but so far these products haven’t really flown.The Straight Shooters: new Internet services for the living room.
These companies (like Akimbo and other startups) attack the problem more directly, giving couch potatoes a new set-top box, remote-control and connection from the Internet to the TV. Microsoft and Sony could also try this approach by retrofitting their gaming consoles, the PlayStation 3 and xBox 360, for Web downloads. The biggest challenge: getting average couch potatoes to bring a whole new piece of electricity-guzzling machinery into their living room.
According to ABI Reasearch, the market for home networking and connected entertainment devices will grow from $14 billion in 2005 to more than $85 billion in 2011, ABI forecasts. This “astonishing” growth rate will be driven by a desire for “pervasive connectivity” in applications such as multi-room PVRs, place-shifting, and networked gaming, according to the market research firm.Another factor driving the market will be the use of home networks for video distribution by IPTV providers such as Verizon, France Telecom, and AT&T, ABI says. These and other service providers see home networks as a way to extend data services without the need for any rewiring, ABI says.In terms of unit volumes, ABI expects the total number of network connections shipped into the home market to grow from 247 million in 2005 to over 861 million units by 2011.
ABI Principal Analyst Michael Wolf stated, “This market has reached a major turning point. Home networking has moved beyond a basic broadband sharing model to one of networked entertainment and convergence across the PC, consumer electronics and communication devices. The emergence of enabling technologies such as 802.11n for wireless video distribution, HomePlug AV and MoCA as alternative multimedia network backbones, and DLNA media server and device interoperability software, are all solidifying the foundation for an explosion of new devices and applications based on a fully connected home.”
More information on ABI’s study, “Home Networking and Connected Home Market Analysis,” is available here.
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