Sofa Surfing on IPTV
WebTV sucked and still sucks today despite being re-branded as MSNTV. Sure, it can get Grandma and Grandpa on the net and emailing the little Emma and Jack, but a new PC could do 20 times as much for just twice the price, making the sweetness of surfing on your big screen a little less logical. At $199.99 before service charges, WebTV may feel like a deal, but when Gramps gets frustrated by the limitations of the tiny device you’re going to have to get him a PC anyway, so why not bite the bullet and start things off right?
Well, even in light of the limits of WebTV and its Redmond-designed demon offspring, it isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be useful from time-to-time to surf the net from the comfort of your La-Z-Boy on your big screen.
Just imagine yesterday’s gridiron festivities with the aid of some Internet: Don’t really know what SalesGenie.com does judging from its cheesy ad? Just click the web button on your remote and — zip — there you are, visiting the site that’s set to bring spamming and direct dial marketing to anyone willing to pony up a couple hundred bucks a month.
Seems like a touchdown for me and my laziness (look, Mom, no laptop!) and even bigger boon for advertisers looking to get (and tracK) results from expensive ad buys. But can such a service be found?
The short answer is, yes, the technology’s already here, although you may need to wait a couple of years until it reaches your own plasma, HD display. This technological valhalla of laziness, known as IPTV, is new-ish, Internet Protocol-based (thus IP-tv) technology that seeks to transmit your favorite television channels over same thick, broadband pipe that you already get your Internet and maybe even your telephone service through.
While you can already get IPTV in a select number of markets in the US (e.g. some areas in Chicago, some schools in California), most are saying the US transition isn’t coming fast enough, with France with nearly 600,000 and Hong Kong with over 700,000 subscribers to IPTV-based services easily wining the competition for market penetration of the new technology. That said, some our saying America’s delay might be a good thing for certain big-name American networking firms, such as Cisco Systems, who stand to do extremely well, as broadband Internet providers start needing to upgrade their network infrastructure to handle the millions of gigabytes IPTV’s video will demand. Just check out the Robert Scoble’s interesting interview with the networking technology company’s CEO, John Chambers.
While it’s currently uncertain how this new technology will make its way into the market, as it competes with some of the older, television delivery formats, the full-scale launch will definitely be something interesting to watch.
