Tech Trends for 2007
Tom Giles from BusinessWeek explores the top tech trends for 2007. The article briefly discusses IPTV and the need to “keep it simple”. This is certainly easier said than done. With IPTV service providers anxious to differentiate their offerings from cable or satellite, the last thing they want is to keep it simple. In fact, our customer push us to deliver more and more functionality on more and more devices (STBs). Until a service provider has breakout success, and can define a winning service offering, the pressure to push the boundaries of hardware and software in IPTV will not subside.
Jobs and his nifty cell phone didn’t steal all the thunder building in Las Vegas, where eyes fixed on Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates and other executives who promulgated visions of delivering entertainment over the Internet through a technology known as Internet protocol TV, or IPTV. The technology’s boosters haven’t made much headway in the past in part because they’ve failed to make IPTV easy to use. That’s poised to change this year, writesBusinessWeek correspondent Cliff Edwards, so long as software, hardware, and consumer electronics bear in mind a simple lesson concerning IPTV: Keep it simple.
